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[1] And Job answereth and saith: --
[2] Till when do ye afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?
[3] These ten times ye put me to shame, ye blush not. Ye make yourselves strange to me --
[4] And also -- truly, I have erred, With me doth my error remain.
[5] If, truly, over me ye magnify yourselves, And decide against me my reproach;
[6] Know now, that God turned me upside down, And His net against me hath set round,
[7] Lo, I cry out -- violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.
[8] My way He hedged up, and I pass not over, And on my paths darkness He placeth.
[9] Mine honour from off me He hath stripped, And He turneth the crown from my head.
[10] He breaketh me down round about, and I go, And removeth like a tree my hope.
[11] And He kindleth against me His anger, And reckoneth me to Him as His adversaries.
[12] Come in do His troops together, And they raise up against me their way, And encamp round about my tent.
[13] My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me.
[14] Ceased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me,
[15] Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes.
[16] To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.
[17] My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my [mother's] womb.
[18] Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.
[19] Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.
[20] To my skin and to my flesh Cleaved hath my bone, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.
[21] Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me.
[22] Why do you pursue me as God? And with my flesh are not satisfied?
[23] Who doth grant now, That my words may be written? Who doth grant that in a book they may be graven?
[24] With a pen of iron and lead -- For ever in a rock they may be hewn.
[25] That -- I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust he doth rise.
[26] And after my skin hath compassed this [body], Then from my flesh I see God:
[27] Whom I -- I see on my side, And mine eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, Consumed have been my reins in my bosom.
[28] But ye say, `Why do we pursue after him?' And the root of the matter hath been found in me.
[29] Be ye afraid because of the sword, For furious [are] the punishments of the sword, That ye may know that [there is] a judgment.
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