1Then Job answered and said: 2How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words? 3These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you have wronged me. 4And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with me. 5If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and adjudge my reproach against me, 6know then that God has bowed me, and has surrounded me with His net. 7Behold, I cry out concerning injustice, but I am not heard. I cry aloud, but there is no justice. 8He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass; and He has set darkness in my paths. 9He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. 10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope He has uprooted like a tree. 11He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His enemies. 12His troops come together and build up their road against me; they encamp all around my tent. 13He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. 14My relatives have left, and my close friends have forgotten me. 15Those who dwell in my house, and my maidservants, count me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their eyes. 16I have called my servant, but he does not answer; I implored him with my mouth. 17My breath is loathsome to my wife, and I must entreat the favor of children for the sake of my own body. 18Even young children despise me; I arise, and they speak against me. 19My circle of friends have abhorred me, and those whom I have loved have turned against me. 20My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends! For the hand of God has struck me! 22Why do you persecute me as the Mighty God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh? 23Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! 24That they were forever engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead! 25For I know that my Redeemer is alive, and He shall stand at the latter time upon the earth; 26and after my skin has been struck off from my flesh, I shall see God: 27Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not a stranger. O how my reins have been exhausted within me! 28If you should say, How shall we persecute him? since the root of the matter has been found in me, 29fear for yourselves because of the sword; for wrath brings the punishment of the sword; that you may know there is judgment.