1 | Then Job answered and said, |
2 | How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? |
3 | These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. |
4 | And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. |
5 | If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: |
6 | Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. |
7 | Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. |
8 | He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. |
9 | He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. |
10 | He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. |
11 | He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. |
12 | His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. |
13 | He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. |
14 | My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. |
15 | They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. |
16 | I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. |
17 | My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body. |
18 | Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. |
19 | All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. |
20 | My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. |
21 | Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. |
22 | Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? |
23 | Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! |
24 | That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! |
25 | For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: |
26 | And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: |
27 | Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. |
28 | But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? |
29 | Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.
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Public Domain