Books of The Bible / Book of Job
1 Job spoke next. He said:
2 How much longer are you going to torment me and crush me by your speeches?
3 You have insulted me ten times already: have you no shame at maltreating me?
4 Even if I had gone astray, my error would still be my own affair.
5 But, whereas you take this superior attitude and claim that my disgrace is my own fault,
6 I tell you that God has wronged me and enveloped me in his net.
7 If I protest against such violence, I am not heard, if I appeal against it, judgement is never given.
8 He has built an impassable wall across my path and covered my way with darkness.
9 He has deprived me of my glory and taken the crown from my head.
10 He assails me from all directions to make me vanish; he uproots my hope as he might a tree.
11 Inflamed with anger against me, he regards me as his foe.
12 His troops have come in force, directing their line of advance towards me, they are now encamped round my tent.
13 He has alienated my brothers from me, my relatives take care to avoid me,
14 my intimate friends have gone away and the guests in my house have forgotten me.
15 My slave-girls regard me as an intruder, a stranger as far as they are concerned.
16 My servant does not answer when I call him, I am obliged to beg favours from him!
17 My breath is unbearable to my wife, my stench to my own brothers.
18 Even the children look down on me, whenever I stand up, they start jeering at me.
19 All my dearest friends recoil from me in horror: those I loved best have turned against me.
20 My flesh is rotting under my skin, my bones are sticking out like teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, my friends, since I have been struck by the hand of God.
22 Must you persecute me just as God does, and give my body no peace?
23 Will no one let my words be recorded, inscribed on some monument
24 with iron chisel and engraving tool, cut into the rock for ever?
25 I know that I have a living Defender and that he will rise up last, on the dust of the earth.
26 After my awakening, he will set me close to him, and from my flesh I shall look on God.
27 He whom I shall see will take my part: my eyes will be gazing on no stranger. My heart sinks within me.
28 When you say, ‘How can we confound him? What pretext can we discover against him?’
29 You yourselves had best beware the sword, since the wrath bursts into flame at wicked deeds and then you will learn that there is indeed a judgement!