1Then Job answered, 2“How long will you vex my soul, and crush me with words? 3These ten times have you insulted me; you are not ashamed that you are offensive to me. 4And if it is, indeed, that I have erred, my error remains with me, alone. 5If indeed you will magnify yourselves by defaming me, and then prove your case against me:

6“Know now that God has overthrown me, and has encompassed me with His net. 7Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no justice. 8He has hemmed me in so that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness in my paths. 9He has stripped me of my honor, and taken the crown from my head. 10He destroys me on all sides, and I am gone; and He has removed my hope like a tree. 11He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His enemies. 12His troops come together, and raise up their siege works against me, and surround my tent. 13He has put my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are verily estranged from me. 14My relatives have failed me, and my close friends have forgotten me. 15They who dwell in my house, and my maids, consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner to them. 16I call my servant, and he does not answer; though I plead with him. 17My breath is repulsive to my wife; and my closest kin abhor me. 18Yea, young children despise me; and mock me when I speak. 19All my intimate friends now hate me; and they whom I loved have turned against me. 20My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped death only by the skin of my teeth. 21Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you, my friends; for the hand of God has touched me. 22Why do you persecute me, as God does, and are not satisfied with my anguish?

23“Oh, that these, my words, were now recorded! Oh, that they were written in a book; 24That they were engraved in the rock with an iron pen and lead, forever! 25For I know that my Redeemer (and Vindicator) lives, and that at the latter day He shall take His stand upon the earth. 26And even after worms destroy my skin and this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27My eyes shall behold Him for myself; and not as a stranger, but as a Friend, and my eyes shall behold Him, even though my heart is consumed within me.

28“But if you should say, ‘Why do we persecute him’, as if guilt, the root of the matter, is found within me? 29Be afraid, yourselves; for wrath brings punishment by the sword, then you will know there is a judgment.”