17. My breath is offensive to my wife,and my own family finds me repulsive.
18. Even young boys scorn me.When I stand up, they mock me.
19. All of my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.
20. My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21. Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,for God’s hand has struck me.
22. Why do you persecute me as God does?Will you never get enough of my flesh?
23. I wish that my words were written down,that they were recorded on a scroll
24. or were inscribed in stone foreverby an iron stylus and lead!
25. But I know my living Redeemer, and He will stand on the dust at last.
26. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh.
27. I will see Him myself;my eyes will look at Him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me.
28. If you say, “How will we pursue him,since the root of the problem lies with him? ”