² "How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
³ Ten times now you have reproached me;
shamelessly you attack me.
⁴ If it is true that I have gone astray,
my error remains my concern alone.
⁵ If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
and use my humiliation against me,
⁶ then know that God has wronged me
and drawn his net around me.

⁷ "Though I cry, ’Violence!’ I get no response;
though I call for help, there is no justice.
⁸ He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
⁹ He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He tears me down on every side till I am gone;
he uproots my hope like a tree.
¹¹ His anger burns against me;
he counts me among his enemies.
¹² His troops advance in force;
they build a siege ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.

¹³ "He has alienated my family from me;
my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
¹⁴ My relatives have gone away;
my closest friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner;
they look on me as on a stranger.
¹⁶ I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
though I beg him with my own mouth.
¹⁷ My breath is offensive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my own family.
¹⁸ Even the little boys scorn me;
when I appear, they ridicule me.
¹⁹ All my intimate friends detest me;
those I love have turned against me.
²⁰ I am nothing but skin and bones;
I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.^[a]

²¹ "Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
for the hand of God has struck me.
²² Why do you pursue me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?

²³ "Oh, that my words were recorded,
that they were written on a scroll,
²⁴ that they were inscribed with an iron tool on^[b] lead,
or engraved in rock forever!
²⁵ I know that my redeemer^[c] lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.^[d]
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet^[e] in^[f] my flesh I will see God;
²⁷ I myself will see him
with my own eyes −I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!

²⁸ "If you say, ’How we will hound him,
since the root of the trouble lies in him,^[g]’
²⁹ you should fear the sword yourselves;
for wrath will bring punishment by the sword,
and then you will know that there is judgment.^[h]"

² "My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer
because I am greatly disturbed.
³ I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
and my understanding inspires me to reply.

⁴ "Surely you know how it has been from of old,
ever since mankind^[i] was placed on the earth,
⁵ that the mirth of the wicked is brief,
the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
⁶ Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens
and his head touches the clouds,
⁷ he will perish forever, like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ’Where is he?’
⁸ Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,
banished like a vision of the night.
⁹ The eye that saw him will not see him again;
his place will look on him no more.
¹⁰ His children must make amends to the poor;
his own hands must give back his wealth.
¹¹ The youthful vigor that fills his bones
will lie with him in the dust.

¹² "Though evil is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
¹³ though he cannot bear to let it go
and lets it linger in his mouth,
¹⁴ yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
it will become the venom of serpents within him.
¹⁵ He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
God will make his stomach vomit them up.
¹⁶ He will suck the poison of serpents;
the fangs of an adder will kill him.
¹⁷ He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
¹⁸ What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;
he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
¹⁹ For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute;
he has seized houses he did not build.

²⁰ "Surely he will have no respite from his craving;
he cannot save himself by his treasure.
²¹ Nothing is left for him to devour;
his prosperity will not endure.
²² In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him;
the full force of misery will come upon him.
²³ When he has filled his belly,
God will vent his burning anger against him
and rain down his blows on him.
²⁴ Though he flees from an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
²⁵ He pulls it out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;
²⁶  total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
and devour what is left in his tent.
²⁷ The heavens will expose his guilt;
the earth will rise up against him.
²⁸ A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters^[j] on the day of God’s wrath.
²⁹ Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
the heritage appointed for them by God."