1 THEN Job answered and said,

2 How long will you grieve my soul, and make me sick with words?

3 For behold, these ten times you have rebuked me; and yet you are not ashamed that you make me sad.

4 If indeed I have erred, my error remains with myself.

5 If you have justly magnified yourselves against me, rebuked me, and reproached me,

6 Know then that God has condemned me, and spread his net over me.

7 If I howl, no one answers me; and if I complain, there is no one to avenge me.

8 He has fenced up my ways so that I cannot 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 destroyed me on every side, and I am no more; and my hope has he removed like a piece of tree.

11 He has also kindled his wrath against me, and he counts me as his enemy.

12 His messengers have come together against me; they debated their ways against me, and encamped round about my tent.

13 My brothers are far off from me, and my acquaintances have deserted me.

14 My kinsfolk have failed me, and my familiar friends have forsaken me.

15 They that dwell in my house, and my maids, consider me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.

16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth and implored him.

17 I have become a stranger to my wife, and have implored the children of my own body.

18 Yea, even the wicked despise me; when I rise, they speak against me.

19 All my counselors abhor me; even my friends have turned against me.

20 My skin and my flesh cleave to my bones, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends; for the hand of God has been against me.

22 Why do you also persecute me like God, and you are not satisfied with the hurt of my flesh?

23 Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a scroll!

24 That they were engraved with an iron pen on lead or in the rock for ever!

25 For I know that my Saviour lives, and at the end he will reveal himself upon the earth;

26 Although devouring worms have covered my skin and my flesh,

27 Yet, if my eyes shall see God, then my heart also will see the light; but now my body is consumed.

28 For you will say, Why did we persecute him? For a good report will follow me and vindicate me.

29 Spare yourselves from the sword; for the wrath of sinners is a sword; for you shall yet know that there is judgment.