“ How long ... will you torment me and crush me with (your) words ?
Ten times now you have reproached me ; vvv you shamelessly mistreat
Even if vvv I have truly gone astray , my error concerns me alone.
If indeed you would exalt (yourselves) above me and use my disgrace ... against me ,
then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
Though I cry out , ‘ Violence ! ’ I get no response ; though I call for help , there is no justice.
He has blocked my way so I cannot pass ; He has veiled ... my paths with darkness.
He has stripped me of my honor ... and removed the crown from my head.
He tears me down on every side until I am gone ; He uproots my hope like a tree.
His anger burns against me , and He counts me among His enemies.
His troops advance together ; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
He has removed my brothers from me ; my acquaintances ... have abandoned me.
My kinsmen have failed me , and my friends have forgotten me.
My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger ; I am a foreigner in their sight.
I call for my servant , but he does not answer , though I implore with my own mouth.
My breath is repulsive to my wife , and I am loathsome to my own family ....
Even little boys scorn when I appear , they deride
All my best friends ... despise me , and those I love have turned
My skin and flesh cling to my bones ; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Have pity on me , my friends , have pity ... , for the hand of God has struck
Why do you persecute me as God does ? Will you never get enough of my flesh ?
I wish ... ... that my words ... ... were recorded and inscribed in a book ,
by an iron stylus on lead , or chiseled in stone forever.
But I know that my Redeemer lives , and in the end He will stand upon the earth.
Even after my skin has been destroyed , ... yet in my flesh I will see God.
I will see Him my eyes will behold Him , and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me !
If you say , ‘ (Let us) persecute since the root of the matter lies
(then) you should fear ... the sword because wrath brings punishment by the sword , so that you may know (there is) a judgment. ”