1 Then Job answered and said,

2 How long will ye vex my soul, and destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus. 3 Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me. 4 Yea verily, I have erred in truth, (but the error abides with myself) 4a in having spoken words which it was not right to speak; and my words err, and are unseasonable. 5 But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach. 6 Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled me, and has raised his bulwark against me. 7 Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: or I will cry out, but there is nowhere judgment. 8 I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face. 9 And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head. 10 He has torn me round about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree. 11 And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy. 12 His troops also came upon me with one accord, liers in wait compassed my ways.

13 My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognised strangers rather than me: and my friends have become pitiless. 14 My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me. 15 As for my household, and my maid-servants, I was a stranger before them. 16 I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated him. 17 And I besought my wife, and earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines. 18 But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me. 19 They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me. 20 My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in my teeth. 21 Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me. 22 Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord does, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23 For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book for ever, 24 with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks! 25 For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me, 26 and to raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these sufferings: for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord; 27 which I am conscious of in myself, which mine eye has seen, and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in my bosom.

28 But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him, and so find the root of the matter in him? 29 Do ye also beware of deceit: for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know where their substance is.