Job

 2 “How long will you keep irritating my soul,*+

Crushing me with words?+

 3 These ten times you have rebuked* me;

You are not ashamed to deal harshly with me.+

 4 And if indeed I made a mistake,

My error remains with me.

 5 If you insist on exalting yourselves over me,

Claiming that the reproach against me is justified,

 6 Know, then, that it is God who has misled me,

And he has caught me in his hunting net.

 7 Look! I keep crying out, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;+

I keep crying for help, but there is no justice.+

 8 My path he has blocked with a stone wall, and I cannot pass by;

He has covered my roadways with darkness.+

 9 He has stripped me of my glory

And removed the crown from my head.

10 He breaks me down on all sides until I perish;

My hope he uproots like a tree.

11 His anger burns against me,

And he views me as his enemy.+

12 His troops come together and besiege me,

And they camp around my tent.

13 My own brothers he has driven far away from me,

And those who know me have turned away from me.+

14 My close companions* are gone,

And those whom I knew well have forgotten me.+

15 Guests in my house+ and my slave girls consider me a stranger;

I am a foreigner in their eyes.

16 I call for my servant, but he does not respond;

With my mouth I beg him for compassion.

17 My very breath has become loathsome to my wife,+

And I am a stench to my own brothers.*

18 Even young children despise me;

When I rise up, they begin jeering at me.

19 All my close friends detest me,+

And those whom I loved have turned against me.+

20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh,+

And I escape with the skin of my teeth.

21 Show me mercy, my companions, show me mercy,

For God’s own hand has touched me.+

22 Why do you keep persecuting me as God does,+

Attacking me without letup?*+

23 If only my words were written down,

If only they could be inscribed in a book!

24 O that they were carved forever in the rock,

With an iron stylus and lead!

25 For I well know that my redeemer*+ is alive;

He will come later and rise up over the earth.*

26 After my skin has thus been destroyed,

While yet in my flesh, I will see God,

27 Whom I will see for myself,

Whom my own eyes will see, not someone else’s.+

29 Be in fear of the sword yourselves,+

For the sword brings punishment against errors;

You should know that there is a judge.”+