[1] Then Job spoke again: [2] "How long will you torture me? How long will you try to crush me with your words? [3] You have already insulted me ten times. You should be ashamed of treating me so badly. [4] Even if I have sinned, that is my concern, not yours. [5] You think you're better than I am, using my humiliation as evidence of my sin. [6] But it is God who has wronged me, capturing me in his net. [7] "I cry out, 'Help!' but no one answers me. I protest, but there is no justice. [8] God has blocked my way so I cannot move. He has plunged my path into darkness. [9] He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. [10] He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished. He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree. [11] His fury burns against me; he counts me as an enemy. [12] His troops advance. They build up roads to attack me. They camp all around my tent. [13] "My relatives stay far away, and my friends have turned against me. [14] My family is gone, and my close friends have forgotten me. [15] My servants and maids consider me a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them. [16] When I call my servant, he doesn't come; I have to plead with him! [17] My breath is repulsive to my wife. I am rejected by my own family. [18] Even young children despise me. When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me. [19] My close friends detest me. Those I loved have turned against me. [20] I have been reduced to skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth. [21] "Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for the hand of God has struck me. [22] Must you also persecute me, like God does? Haven't you chewed me up enough? [23] "Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument, [24] carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock. [25] "But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. [26] And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! [27] I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought! [28] "How dare you go on persecuting me, saying, 'It's his own fault'? [29] You should fear punishment yourselves, for your attitude deserves punishment. Then you will know that there is indeed a judgment."
