God has delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

I was at ease, but he has broken me asunder: he has also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

His archers surround me, he slashes my kidneys asunder, and does not spare; he pours out my gall upon the ground.

He breaks me with breach upon breach, he runs upon me like a warrior.

I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and laid my strength in the dust.

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

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

O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry have no place.

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

My friends scorn me: but my eye pours out tears unto God.

My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.

Are there not mockers with me? and does not my eye continue in their provocation?

Lay down a surety for me with you; who is he that will give surety for me?

He has made me also a byword of the people; and I was as one before whom men spit.

My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are like a shadow.

My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

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

I have said to corruption, You are my father: to the worm, You are my mother, and my sister.

And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

How long will you torment my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

These ten times have you reproached me: you are not ashamed that you have wronged me.

And if indeed I have erred, my error remains with myself.

If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

Know now that God has overthrown me, and has compassed me with his net.

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

He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

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

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

His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tent.

He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

My kinsfolk have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me.

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

I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.

My breath is repulsive to my wife, though I make supplication for the children of my own body.

Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spoke against me.

All my close friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved have turned against me.

My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.

Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

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

For I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

And though after my skin is thus destroyed, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; though my heart be consumed within me.

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

Be yourselves afraid of the sword: for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.

Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.

I have heard the rebuke of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer.

Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolation.

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

As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

Look at me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.

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

Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which you wrongfully imagine against me.

How then do you comfort me in vain, seeing in your answers there remains falsehood?

Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

Even today is my complaint bitter: my hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.

Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.

There the righteous might reason with him; so should I be delivered forever from my judge.

But he knows the way that I take: when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

My foot has held fast to his steps, his way have I kept, and not turned aside.

Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

For he performs the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

For God makes my heart soft, and the Almighty troubles me:

Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither has he covered the darkness from my face.

The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguises his face.

And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?

As God lives, who has taken away my right; and the Almighty, who has made bitter my soul;

All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove my integrity from me.

My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Let my enemy be as the wicked, and he that rises up against me as the unrighteous.

He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.

The deep says, It is not in me: and the sea says, It is not with me.

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

When his lamp shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;

As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tent;

When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the open square!

The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.

When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my justice was as a robe and a turban.

Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

My root was spread out to the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

After my words they spoke not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

If I mocked them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

But now they that are younger than I hold me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.

Yea, how might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom vigor has perished?

They abhor me, they flee far from me, and hesitate not to spit in my face.

Because he has loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also cast off restraint before me.

Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.