1. Then Job replied:
2. ‘How long will you torment meand crush me with words?
3. Ten times now you have reproached me;shamelessly you attack me.
4. If it is true that I have gone astray,my error remains my concern alone.
5. If indeed you would exalt yourselves above meand use my humiliation against me,
6. then know that God has wronged meand drawn his net around me.
7. ‘Though I cry, “Violence!” I get no response;though I call for help, there is no justice.
8. He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass;he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9. He has stripped me of my honourand removed the crown from my head.
10. He tears me down on every side till I am gone;he uproots my hope like a tree.
11. His anger burns against me;he counts me among his enemies.
12. His troops advance in force;they build a siege ramp against meand encamp around my tent.
13. ‘He has alienated my family from me;my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14. My relatives have gone away;my closest friends have forgotten me.
15. My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;they look upon me as a stranger.
16. I summon my servant, but he does not answer,though I beg him with my own mouth.
17. My breath is offensive to my wife;I am loathsome to my own family.
18. Even the little boys scorn me;when I appear, they ridicule me.