The Book of Job

Then Job responded,

"How long will you torment me, And crush me with words?

"These ten times you have insulted me, You are not ashamed to wrong me.

"Even if I have truly erred, My error lodges with me.

"If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me, And prove my disgrace to me,

Know then that God has wronged me, And has closed His net around me.

"Behold, I cry, 'Violence!' but I get no answer; I shout for help, but there is no justice.

"He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass; And He has put darkness on my paths.

"He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

"He has also kindled His anger against me, And considered me as His enemy.

"His troops come together, And build up their way against me, And camp around my tent.

"He has removed my brothers far from me, And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

"My relatives have failed, And my intimate friends have forgotten me.

"Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight.

"I call to my servant, but he does not answer, I have to implore him with my mouth.

"My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers.

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

"All my associates abhor me, And those I love have turned against me.

"My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, And I have escaped [only] by the skin of my teeth.

"Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has struck me.

"Why do you persecute me as God [does,] And are not satisfied with my flesh?

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

"That with an iron stylus and lead They were engraved in the rock forever!

"And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

"Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes shall see and not another. My heart faints within me.

"If you say, 'How shall we persecute him?' And 'What pretext for a case against him can we find?'

"[Then] be afraid of the sword for yourselves, For wrath [brings] the punishment of the sword, So that you may know there is judgment."