² How long will you torment my soul?
How long will you crush me with words?
³ Ten times now you have insulted me,
but you are not ashamed that you are treating me so badly.
⁴ But even if I actually were in the wrong,
my error would remain my own concern.
⁵ To be sure, when you lord it over me,
and you hurl my disgrace against me,
⁶ you should know that God has denied me justice,
and he has trapped me in his net.
⁷ Listen to me!
I cry out, “Injustice,” but I get no answer.
I call for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He has blocked my way, so I cannot get by.
He has brought darkness on my paths.
⁹ He has stripped me of my honor,
and he has taken the crown off my head.
¹⁰ He tears me down on every side, until I am gone.
He uproots my hope like a tree.
¹¹ His anger burns against me,
and he regards me as his enemy.
¹² Together his troops advance against me.
They build a siege ramp against me.
They camp all around my tent.
¹³ He has distanced my brothers far from me,
and those who know me treat me like a stranger.
¹⁴ My relatives stay away.
Even my close friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ Even my houseguests and my female servants treat me like a stranger.
They look upon me as a foreigner.
¹⁶ I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
even though I beg him to be gracious to me.
¹⁷ My breath keeps my wife away from me,
and I am repulsive to my mother’s children.
¹⁸ Even young boys reject me.
When I get up, they speak against me.
¹⁹ My closest confidants shun me,
and those I love have turned against me.
²⁰ I am nothing but skin and bones.
I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.
²¹ Have mercy on me.
Have mercy on me, you friends of mine,
because the hand of God has struck me.
²² Why do you pursue me the way God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
²³ Oh how I wish that my words were written down.
Oh how I wish that they were inscribed in bronze,^[a]
24 that they would be engraved in rock forever
with an iron tool and letters filled with lead.
²⁵ As for me, I know that my Redeemer^[b] lives,
and that at the end of time^[c] he will stand over the dust.
²⁶ Then, even after my skin has been destroyed,
nevertheless, in my own flesh I will see God.^[d]
27 I myself will see him.
My own eyes will see him, and not as a stranger.
My emotions are in turmoil^[e] within me.

²⁸ If you say, “What can we do to pursue him?”
and “He is the root of his own problems,”
²⁹ then you should fear the edge of the sword for yourselves!
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
so that you will know that there is judgment.