1 Then Job replied: |
2 "How long will you torment me and crush me with words? |
3 Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me. |
4 If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone. |
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me, |
6 then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me. |
7 "Though I cry, 'I've been wronged!' I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice. |
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness. |
9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. |
10 He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree. |
11 His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies. |
12 His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent. |
13 "He has alienated my brothers from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. |
14 My kinsmen have gone away; my friends have forgotten me. |
15 My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger; they look upon me as an alien. |
16 I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth. |
17 My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own brothers. |
18 Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me. |
19 All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me. |
20 I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth. |
21 "Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me. |
22 Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh? |
23 "Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, |
24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever! |
25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. |
26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; |
27 I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! |
28 "If you say, 'How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,' |
29 you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment." |