[1] Why do you keep tormenting me with words? [3] Time after time you insult me and show no shame for the way you abuse me. [4] Even if I have done wrong, how does that hurt you? [5] You think you are better than I am, and regard my troubles as proof of my guilt. [6] Can't you see it is God who has done this? He has set a trap to catch me. [7] I protest his violence, but no one is listening; no one hears my cry for justice. [8] God has blocked the way, and I can't get through; he has hidden my path in darkness. [9] He has taken away all my wealth and destroyed my reputation. [10] He batters me from every side. He uproots my hope and leaves me to wither and die. [11] God is angry and rages against me; he treats me like his worst enemy. [12] He sends his army to attack me; they dig trenches and lay siege to my tent. [13] God has made my own family forsake me; I am a stranger to those who knew me; [14] my relatives and friends are gone. [15] Those who were guests in my house have forgotten me; my servant women treat me like a stranger and a foreigner. [16] When I call a servant, he doesn't answer- even when I beg him to help me. [17] My wife can't stand the smell of my breath, and my own brothers won't come near me. [18] Children despise me and laugh when they see me. [19] My closest friends look at me with disgust; those I loved most have turned against me. [20] My skin hangs loose on my bones; I have barely escaped with my life. [21] You are my friends! Take pity on me! The hand of God has struck me down. [22] Why must you persecute me the way God does? Haven't you tormented me enough? [23] How I wish that someone would remember my words and record them in a book! [24] Or with a chisel carve my words in stone and write them so that they would last forever. [25] But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense. [26] Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God. [27] I will see him with my own eyes, and he will not be a stranger. My courage failed because you said, [28] "How can we torment him?" You looked for some excuse to attack me. [29] But now, be afraid of the sword- the sword that brings God's wrath on sin, so that you will know there is one who judges.
