2“How long will you torment me

and crush me with words?

3Ten times now you have reproached me;

shamelessly you attack me.

4If it is true that I have gone astray,

my error remains my concern alone.

5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me

and use my humiliation against me,

6then know that God has wronged me

and drawn his net around me.

7“Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response;

though I call for help, there is no justice.

8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;

he has shrouded my paths in darkness.

9He has stripped me of my honor

and removed the crown from my head.

10He tears me down on every side till I am gone;

he uproots my hope like a tree.

11His anger burns against me;

he counts me among his enemies.

12His troops advance in force;

they build a siege ramp against me

and encamp around my tent.

13“He has alienated my family from me;

my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14My relatives have gone away;

my closest friends have forgotten me.

15My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;

they look on me as on a stranger.

16I summon my servant, but he does not answer,

though I beg him with my own mouth.

17My breath is offensive to my wife;

I am loathsome to my own family.

18Even the little boys scorn me;

when I appear, they ridicule me.

19All my intimate friends detest me;

those I love have turned against me.

20I am nothing but skin and bones;

I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. ^a

21“Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,

for the hand of God has struck me.

22Why do you pursue me as God does?

Will you never get enough of my flesh?

23“Oh, that my words were recorded,

that they were written on a scroll,

24that they were inscribed with an iron tool on ^b lead,

or engraved in rock forever!

25I know that my redeemer ^c lives,

and that in the end he will stand on the earth. ^d

26And after my skin has been destroyed,

yet ^e in ^f my flesh I will see God;

27I myself will see him

with my own eyes—I, and not another.

How my heart yearns within me!

28“If you say, ‘How we will hound him,

since the root of the trouble lies in him, ^g ’

29you should fear the sword yourselves;

for wrath will bring punishment by the sword,

and then you will know that there is judgment. ^h ”