But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and I am in the grip of all my trouble.

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

They have gaped on me with their mouth, In reproach they have smitten my cheeks, Together against me they set themselves.

“God hands me over to criminals
And tosses me [headlong] into the hands of the wicked.

At ease I have been, and he breaketh me, And he hath laid hold on my neck, And he breaketh me in pieces, And he raiseth me to him for a mark.

“His arrows surround me.
He pierces my kidneys (vital organs) without mercy;
He pours out my gall on the ground.

He breaketh me -- breach upon breach, He runneth upon me as a mighty one.

I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.

Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.

And, he that voucheth for me is on high. My friends are, they who scorn me, Unto GOD, hath mine eye shed tears: -

O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

For, their heart, hast thou kept back from understanding, On this account, thou wilt not exalt them.

“He who denounces and informs against his friends for a share of the spoil,
The eyes of his children will also languish and fail.

But he hath made me a byword of the people; And they spit in my face.

The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.

They change the night into day; the light they imagine near in presence of the darkness.

If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

If I call out to the pit (grave), ‘You are my father’;
And to the worm [that feeds on decay], ‘You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],’

They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.

Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?

He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?

The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

A gin shall take him by the heel, And a snare shall lay hold on him.

The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.

Something gnaws on his skin; a deadly disease consumes his limbs.

“He is torn from his tent which he trusted [for safety],
And he is marched and brought to the king of terrors (death).

It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.

Those in the west are appalled at his fate,
while those in the east tremble in horror.

Indeed, such is the dwelling of the unjust man,
and this is the place of the one who does not know God.

In response, Job said:

How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.

If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me,

Know now that God hath subverted me in my cause , And hath compassed me with his net.

Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.

He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

His troops come on together, And cast up their way against me, And encamp round about my tent.

My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
even if I beg him with my own mouth.

My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.

“Even young children despise me;
When I get up, they speak against me.

All the men of my counsel detest me, even this one I loved has turned against me.

My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.

“Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends,
For the hand of God has touched me.

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

“For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives,
And at the last He will take His stand upon the earth.

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. My heart is consumed within me.

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a judge.

Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, Even by reason of my haste that is in me.

Whenever I hear an insulting rebuke, I respond from my spirit because I understand."

This hast thou known from antiquity? Since the placing of man on earth?

the praise of the ungodly hath been short, and that the joy of the hypocrites continued but the twinkling of an eye?

Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

He will fly away like a dream and never be found;
he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

"An eye that gazes at him won't do so again; and his place won't even recognize him.

His children will beg from the poor,
for his own hands must give back his wealth.

His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

Hath pity on it, and doth not forsake it, And keep it back in the midst of his palate,

Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

He looketh not on rivulets, Flowing of brooks of honey and butter.

“He gives back what he has labored for and attained
And cannot swallow it [down to enjoy it];
As to the riches of his labor,
He cannot even enjoy them.

Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

He had never enough for his desire; for this cause his well-being will quickly come to an end.

In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

He fleeth from an iron weapon, Pass through him doth a bow of brass.

One hath drawn, And it cometh out from the body, And a glittering weapon from his gall proceedeth. On him are terrors.

All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

The heavens shall uncover his iniquity, and the earth an adversary against him.

The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

This is the portion of a wicked man from God. And an inheritance appointed him by God.

In response, Job said:

Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.

Is it with a man, that I make this disputation? Which if it were so, should not my spirit be then in sore trouble?

Turn to me and be appalled, and place [your] hand on [your] mouth.

Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?

Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.

“Their houses are safe from fear;
And the rod of God is not on them.