2“How long will you torment [186]me And crush me with words?
3These ten times you have insulted me; You are not ashamed to wrong me.
4Even if I have truly done wrong, My error stays with me.
5If indeed you exalt yourselves against me And prove my disgrace to me,
6Know then that God has wronged me And has surrounded me with His net.
Everything Is Against Him
7“Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer; I shout for help, but there is no justice.
8He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass, And He has put darkness on my paths.
9He has stripped my honor from me And removed the crown from my head.
10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.
11He has also kindled His anger against me And considered me as His enemy.
12His troops come together And build up their [187]way against me And camp around my tent.
13“He has removed my brothers far from me, And my acquaintances have completely turned away from me.
14My relatives have failed, And my close friends have forgotten me.
15Those who live in my house and my servant women consider me a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight.
16I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I have to implore his favor with my mouth.
17My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
18Even young children despise me; I stand up and they speak against me.
19All [188]my associates loathe me, And those I love have turned against me.
20My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21Pity me, pity me, you friends of mine, For the hand of God has struck me.
22Why do you persecute me as God does, And are not satisfied with my flesh?
Job Says My Redeemer Lives
23“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were recorded in a book!
24That with an iron stylus and lead They were engraved in the rock forever!
25Yet as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last, He will take His stand on the [189]earth.
26Even after my skin [190]is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I will see God,
27Whom I, on my part, shall behold for myself, And whom my eyes will see, and not another. My [191]heart faints [192]within me!
28If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’ And ‘[193]What pretext for a case against him can we find?’
29Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, For wrath brings the punishment of the sword, So that you may know there is judgment.”