1 And Job replied and said,
2 How long will ye anguish my soul and break me in pieces with words? 3 These ten times ye have reproached me; are ye not ashamed to make yourselves strange to me? 4 And if indeed I have erred, my error shall remain with me. 5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me and reprove me of my reproach, 6 know now that God has overthrown me and has compassed me with his net. 7 Behold, I shall cry out that I have been wronged, and I shall not be heard; I shall cry aloud, and there shall be no judgment. 8 He has walled off my way and I shall not pass, and he has set darkness in my paths. 9 He has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head. 10 He has pulled me up on every side, and I am dried up; he has caused my hope to pass like an uprooted tree. 11 He has kindled his wrath against me, and he counted me unto him as one of his enemies. 12 His troops came together and raised up their way over me and encamp round about my tent.
13 He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are verily estranged from me. 14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. 15 Those that dwell in my house and my maids have counted me for a stranger; I was an alien in their sight. 16 I called my slave, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. 17 My spirit came to be strange to my wife, although I intreated her for the sons of my own body. 18 Even the young children despised me; as I arose, they spoke against me. 19 All my intimate friends abhorred me; and those whom I loved are turned against me. 20 My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. 21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God has touched me. 22 Why do ye persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were printed in a book! 24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! 25 For I know that my redeemer lives and that he shall rise at the latter day over the dust; 26 and afterward from this, my stricken skin and from my own flesh, I must see God: 27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, though my kidneys be consumed within me. 28 But ye should say, Why should we persecute him, seeing that the root of the matter is found in me? 29 Be ye afraid of the sword; for the wrath of the sword comes because of the iniquities, that ye may know there is a judgment.