¹ Then Job answered,

^{2 Ref} "How long will you torment me, And crush me with words?

^{3 Ref} You have reproached me ten times. You aren't ashamed that you attack me.

^{4 Ref} If it is true that I have erred, My error remains with myself.

^{5 Ref} If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach;

^{6 Ref} Know now that God has subverted me, And has surrounded me with his net.

^{7 Ref} "Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice.

^{8 Ref} He has walled up my way so that I can't pass, And has set darkness in my paths.

^{9 Ref} He has stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head.

^{10 Ref} He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.

^{11 Ref} He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

^{12 Ref} His troops come on together, Build a siege ramp against me, And encamp around my tent.

^{13 Ref} "He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

^{14 Ref} My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

^{15 Ref} Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

^{16 Ref} I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer; I beg him with my mouth.

^{17 Ref} My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

^{18 Ref} Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

^{19 Ref} All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

^{20 Ref} My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

^{21 Ref} "Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; For the hand of God has touched me.

^{22 Ref} Why do you persecute me as God, And are not satisfied with my flesh?

^{23 Ref} "Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

^{24 Ref} That with an iron pen and lead They were engraved in the rock forever!

^{25 Ref} But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

^{26 Ref} After my skin is destroyed, Then in my flesh shall I see God,

^{27 Ref} Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. "My heart is consumed within me.

^{28 Ref} If you say, 'How we will persecute him!' Because the root of the matter is found in me,

^{29 Ref} Be afraid of the sword, For wrath brings the punishments of the sword, That you may know there is a judgment."