14. My relatives and companions neglect me,my guests have forgotten me.
15. Even my maidservants consider me a stranger;I am a foreigner in their sight.
16. I call my servant, but he gives no answer,though I plead aloud with him.
17. My breath is abhorrent to my wife;I am loathsome to my very children.
18. Even young children despise me;when I appear, they speak against me.
19. All my intimate friends hold me in horror;those whom I loved have turned against me!
20. My bones cling to my skin,and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21. Pity me, pity me, you my friends,for the hand of God has struck me!
22. Why do you pursue me like God,and prey insatiably upon me?
23. Oh, would that my words were written down!Would that they were inscribed in a record:
24. That with an iron chisel and with leadthey were cut in the rock forever!
25. As for me, I know that my vindicator lives,and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust.
26. This will happen when my skin has been stripped off,and from my flesh I will see God:
27. I will see for myself,my own eyes, not another’s, will behold him:my inmost being is consumed with longing.
28. But you who say, “How shall we persecute him,seeing that the root of the matter is found in him?”
29. Be afraid of the sword for yourselves,for your anger is a crime deserving the sword;that you may know that there is a judgment.