1 Then Job answered and said, 2 How long will you afflict my soul, and destroy me with words? 3 Only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus. You speak against me; you do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me. 4 Yes truly, I have erred in truth, (but the error remains with myself) 4a in having spoken words which it was not right to speak; and my words err, and are unreasonable. 5 But alas! for you magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach. 6 Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled me, and has raised his bulwark against me. 7 Look, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: or I will cry out, but there is nowhere judgment. 8 I am fenced all around, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face. 9 And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head. 10 He has torn me all around, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree. 11 And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy. 12 His troops also came upon me with one accord, liars in wait surrounded my ways. 13 My brothers have stood aloof from me; they have recognized strangers rather than me: and my friends have become pitiless. 14 My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me. 15 As for my household, and my maidservants, I was a stranger before them. 16 I called my servant, and he did not listen; and my mouth implored him. 17 And I implored my wife, and earnestly implored the sons of my concubines. 18 But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me. 19 They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me. 20 My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in my teeth. 21 Pity me, pity me, friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me. 22 Why do you persecute me as also the Lord does, and are not satisfied with my flesh? 23 For if only my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book forever, 24 with an iron pen and lead, or engraved in the rocks! 25 For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me on the earth, 26 and to raise up my skin that endures these sufferings:⁠a for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord; 27 which I am conscious of in myself, which my eye has seen, and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in my bosom. 28 But if you shall also say, What shall we say before him, and so find the root of the matter in him? 29 You also beware of deceit: for fierce anger will come upon transgressors; and then they will know where their substance is.