17. My breath is repulsive to my wife.I am rejected by my own family.
18. Even young children despise me.When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me.
19. My close friends detest me.Those I loved have turned against me.
20. I have been reduced to skin and bonesand have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.
21. “Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,for the hand of God has struck me.
22. Must you also persecute me, like God does?Haven’t you chewed me up enough?
23. “Oh, that my words could be recorded.Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,
24. carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead,engraved forever in the rock.