Then Iyyov answered and said,

Then Iyyov raised his voice and said:

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

How long will you grieve my soul and oppress me with words?

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

You have now shamed me ten times. You have not been ashamed to estrange yourselves from me.

And be it indeed that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

And even if I did go astray, with me [alone] my erring rests [i.e., I alone am smitten for it].

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

If, indeed, [I erred], you [only] magnify [my transgression] and throw up my shame to my face.

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

Know, then, that G d has perverted [my verdict] and that He has cast His net around me.

Behold, I cry out, Violence, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no justice.

I cry out against the injustice [done me], and I am not answered. I scream and there is no justice.

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

He has barred my way and I cannot cross, and He has placed darkness upon my paths.

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

He has stripped me of my honor [i.e., my clothing] and removed the crown of my head.

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

He has smashed me on all sides, and I have gone, and He has uprooted my hope as a tree.

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

And He has vented His wrath upon me, accounting me as [one of] His foes.

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

All of His troops [i.e., His afflictions] come together and pave their way against me, and they camp around my tent.

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

He has distanced my brothers from me, and those who knew me have become estranged from me.

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

My close ones are gone, and my familiars have forgotten me.

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

The dwellers in my household and my maidservants have considered me a stranger. I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

I call my servant, and he gives me no answer; though I entreat him with my mouth.

I call my servant and he does not answer, [though] I implore him with my mouth.

My breath is repulsive to my wife, and my cries to my own children.

My spirit is strange to my wife, and I implore [(those I have reared in my house as if they were)] the sons of my body.

Yea, young children despise me; I arise, and they speak against me.

Even youths despise me. [Though] I rise [(to honor them)], they speak [contemptuously] of me.

All my trusted friends abhor me: and they whom I love are turned against me.

All the men of my counsel have abominated me, and these [(the friends)] that I have loved have turned against me.

My bone cleaves to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

[(I have become so emaciated that)] my bones have stuck to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped [only] with the skin of my teeth [i.e., only my gums have escaped boils and worms].

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

Pity me, pity me, you, my friends, for the hand of G d has struck me.

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

Why do you pursue me as G d [does], and why are you not satisfied with [the afflictions of] my flesh?

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

Would that my words were written down! Would that they were inscribed in a book!

that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock for ever!

[Would that] with a pen of iron and with lead they were eternally etched in rock!

For I know that my avenger lives, and that he who outlives all things, will rise when I shall be dust.

[(reversion to 22)] I know that my Redeemer lives [(and He will requite you for this)] and He will endure after all [men] upon the earth.

But whilst I am still in my flesh, though it be after my skin is torn from my body, I would see God:

[(But they pay no heed to my Redeemer, but)] after [the afflictions of] my skin, they have thus tormented [me], and from my flesh I see Judgment.

that I might see him for myself: that my eyes might behold, and not another: in longing for that my reins are consumed within me.

What I am aware of within me, and [what] my eyes have seen and not [those of] a stranger is that my kidneys have become consumed in my innards.

And if you should say, Do we indeed persecute him? and is not the root of the matter found in me?

Would it enter your minds to say, "Why should we pursue him?" and [to attempt to discover] the root of the matter [i.e., the cause of the suffering] that I am undergoing?

be afraid of the sword: for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know that there is judgment.

Fear you, then, the sword; for [unjustified] wrath is [among] the sins [punishable by] the sword; and you will know that there is judgment [in the world].