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 deal hardly with me.
⁴ And be it indeed that I have erred,
Mine error remaineth with myself.
^5 [a]If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,
And plead against me my reproach;
⁶ Know now that God hath ^[b]subverted me in my cause,
And hath compassed me with his net.

⁷ Behold, I ^[c]cry out of wrong, but I am not heard:
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass,
And hath set darkness in my paths.
⁹ He hath stripped me of my glory,
And taken the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone;
And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree.
¹¹ He hath also kindled his wrath against me,
And he counteth me unto him as one of his adversaries.
¹² His troops come on together,
And cast up their way against me,
And encamp round about my tent.

¹³ He hath put my brethren far from me,
And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed,
And my familiar friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ They that ^[d]dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger:
I am an alien in their sight.
¹⁶ I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer,
Though I entreat him with my mouth.
¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife,
And ^[e]my supplication to the children ^[f]of mine own mother.
¹⁸ Even young children despise me;
If I arise, they speak against me.
¹⁹ All ^[g]my familiar friends abhor 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 inscribed in a book!
²⁴ That with an iron pen and lead
They were graven in the rock for ever!
^25 [h]But as for me I know that my ^[i]Redeemer liveth,
And at last he will stand up upon the ^[j]earth:
^26 [k]And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed,
Then without my flesh shall I see God;
²⁷ Whom I, even I, shall see, ^[l]on my side,
And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.
My ^[m]heart is consumed within me.
²⁸ If ye say, How we will persecute him!
And that the root of the matter is found in me;
²⁹ Be ye afraid of the sword:
For ^[n]wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword,
That ye may know there is a judgment.