The Book of Job

And Job answered and said,

How long will ye vex my soul, and crush me with words?

These ten times have ye reproached me; ye are not ashamed to stupefy me.

And be it [that] I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and prove against me my reproach,

Know now that God [Eloah] hath overthrown me, and hath surrounded me with his net.

Behold, I cry out of wrong, and I am not heard; I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

He hath hedged up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

He breaketh me down on every side, and I am gone; and my hope hath he torn up as a tree.

And he hath kindled his anger against me, and hath counted me unto him as one of his enemies.

His troops have come together and cast up their way against me, and have encamped round about my tent.

He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are quite estranged from me.

My kinsfolk have failed, and my known friends have forgotten me.

The sojourners in my house and my maids count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.

I called my servant, and he answered not; I entreated him with my mouth.

My breath is strange to my wife, and my entreaties to the children of my [mother's] womb.

Even young children despise me; I rise up, and they speak against me.

All my intimate friends abhor me, and they whom I loved are turned against me.

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

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, ye my friends; for the hand of God [Eloah] hath touched me.

Why do ye persecute me as God [El], and are not satisfied with my flesh?

Oh would that my words were written! oh that they were inscribed in a book!

That with an iron style and lead they were graven in the rock for ever!

And [as for] me, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and the Last, he shall stand upon the earth;

And [if] after my skin this shall be destroyed, yet from out of my flesh shall I see God [Eloah];

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another: -- my reins are consumed within me.

If ye say, How shall we persecute him? when the root of the matter is found in me,

Be ye yourselves afraid of the sword! for the sword is fury against misdeeds, that ye may know there is a judgment.