1 Then Job replied ⌞to his friends⌟,
2 “How long will you torment me
3 You have insulted me ten times now.
4 Even if it were true that I’ve made a mistake without realizing it,
5 If you are trying to make yourselves look better than me
6 then I want you to know that God has wronged me
7 Indeed, I cry, ‘Help! I’m being attacked!’ but I get no response.
8 “God has blocked my path so that I can’t go on.
9 He has stripped me of my honor.
10 He beats me down on every side until I’m gone.
11 He is very angry at me.
12 His troops assemble against me.
13 “My brothers stay far away from me.
14 My relatives and my closest friends have stopped coming.
15 My female slaves consider me to be a stranger.
16 I call my slave, but he doesn’t answer, though I beg him.
17 My breath offends my wife.
18 Even young children despise me.
19 All my closest friends are disgusted with me.
20 I am skin and bones,
21 “Have pity on me, my friends!
22 Why do you pursue me as God does?
23 “I wish now my words were written.
24 I wish they were forever engraved on a rock
25 But I know that my defender lives,
26 Even after my skin has been stripped off my body,
27 I will see him with my own eyes,
28 “You say,
29 Fear death,