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Then Job answered and said,
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How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
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These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
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And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
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If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
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Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
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Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
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He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
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He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
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He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
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He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
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His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
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He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
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My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
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They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
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I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.
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My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.
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Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
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All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
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My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
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Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
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Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
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Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
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That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
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For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
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And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
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Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
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But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
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Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.