² “How long will you torment me
    and 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 me
    and use my humiliation against me,
⁶ then 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.
⁸ He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
    he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
⁹ He has stripped me of my honor
    and 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 me
    and 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 on me as on 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.
¹⁹ All my intimate friends detest me;
    those I love have turned against me.
²⁰ I am nothing but skin and bones;
    I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

²¹ “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
    for the hand of God has struck me.
²² Why 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,
²⁴ that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
    or engraved in rock forever!
²⁵ I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
²⁶ And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God;
²⁷ I 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,
²⁹ you should fear the sword yourselves;
    for wrath will bring punishment by the sword,
    and then you will know that there is judgment.”