² “How long will you torment me
    and break me in pieces with words?
³ These ^(A)ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
    are you not ashamed to wrong me?
⁴ And even if it be true that I have erred,
    my error remains with myself.
⁵ If indeed you ^(B)magnify yourselves against me
    and make my disgrace an argument against me,
⁶ know then that God has ^(C)put me in the wrong
    and closed his net about me.
⁷ Behold, I ^(D)cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
    I call for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He has ^(E)walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
    and he has set darkness upon my paths.
⁹ He has ^(F)stripped from me my glory
    and taken the ^(G)crown from my head.
¹⁰ He breaks me down on every side, and I ^(H)am gone,
    and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
¹¹ He has kindled his wrath against me
    and ^(I)counts me as his adversary.
¹² His ^(J)troops come on together;
    they have ^(K)cast up their siege ramp^[a] against me
    and encamp around my tent.

¹³ “He has put my ^(L)brothers far from me,
    and ^(M)those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My relatives ^(N)have failed me,
    my close ^(O)friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ The guests ^(P)in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
    I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
¹⁶ I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
    I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
¹⁷ My breath is strange to my ^(Q)wife,
    and I am a stench to the children of ^(R)my own mother.
¹⁸ Even young ^(S)children despise me;
    when I rise they talk against me.
¹⁹ All my ^(T)intimate friends abhor me,
    and those whom I loved have turned against me.
²⁰ My ^(U)bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
    and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
²¹ Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
    for the hand of God has ^(V)touched me!
²² Why do you, like God, ^(W)pursue me?
    Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ “Oh that my words were written!
    Oh that they were ^(X)inscribed in a book!
²⁴ Oh that with an iron ^(Y)pen and lead
    they were engraved in the rock forever!
²⁵ For I ^(Z)know that my ^(AA)Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the ^(AB)earth.^[b]
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in^[c] my flesh I shall ^(AC)see God,
²⁷ whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not ^(AD)another.
    My heart ^(AE)faints within me!
²⁸ If you say, ‘How we will ^(AF)pursue him!’
    and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’^[d]
29 be afraid of the sword,
    for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
    that you may know there is ^(AG)a judgment.”