1Job replied,

2“How long will you go on tormenting me? How long will you go on crushing me with words?

3Ten times already you have humiliated me. Aren't you ashamed for treating me so badly?

4Even if I did sin, that's my problem, and has nothing to do with you.

5You think you're so much better than me, and you use my degradation against me.

6But you should realize that it's God who has wronged me, ¹¹⁰he has trapped me in his net.

7Even though I cry for help, I get no answer; even though I shout my objections, I get no justice.

8God has walled me in so I can't escape; he has plunged my path into darkness.

9He has stripped my honor ¹¹¹from me; he has taken away my reputation. ¹¹²

10He tears me down from all sides until I am finished; he has destroyed my hope like a tree that is uprooted.

11His anger burns against me; he treats me as one of his enemies.

12God's troops assemble to attack me. They build ramparts against me. They encircle and besiege my home.

13He has driven my brothers far away from me; all my former friends are estranged from me.

14My relatives have abandoned me; my close friends have forgotten me.

15My house guests and my maidservants treat me as a stranger—to them I have become a foreigner.

16I call my servant, but he doesn't reply. I have to beg him!

17I ¹¹³am repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own brothers. ¹¹⁴

18Even young children despise me; when I stand up they ridicule me.

19All my closest friends despise me, and those I loved have turned on me.

20I've been reduced to skin and bones and I survive by the skin of my teeth.

21Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me, because God has struck me down!

22Why are you persecuting me like God does? Aren't you satisfied with getting your pound of flesh?

23I wish my words could be written down, recorded in a book,

24or engraved with an iron pen and molten lead in the rock forever.

25I know my Redeemer is alive, and that he shall finally take the stand ¹¹⁵for me on the earth.

26Even though my skin is destroyed, in my body ¹¹⁶I shall see God.

27I myself will see him—with my own eyes, and not those of someone else! The thought overcomes me! ¹¹⁷

28You say to yourselves, ‘How can we make him suffer so he can see he is the source of his problems?’

29You yourselves should fear being punished by God, for you know anger brings God's punishment ¹¹⁸that accompanies judgment.”