² “How long will you hunt for words?
    Consider, and then we shall speak.
³ Why are we counted as cattle?
    Why are we stupid in your sight?^(A)
4 You who tear yourself in your anger—
    shall the earth be forsaken because of you
    or the rock be removed out of its place?^(B)

⁵ “Surely the light of the wicked is put out,
    and the flame of their fire does not shine.^(C)
6 The light is dark in their tent,
    and the lamp above them is put out.
⁷ Their strong steps are shortened,
    and their own schemes throw them down.^(D)
8 For they are thrust into a net by their own feet,
    and they walk into a pitfall.^(E)
9 A trap seizes them by the heel;
    a snare lays hold of them.^(F)
10 A rope is hid for them in the ground,
    a trap for them in the path.^(G)
11 Terrors frighten them on every side
    and chase them at their heels.^(H)
12 Their strength is consumed by hunger,^[a]
    and calamity is ready for their stumbling.^(I)
13 By disease their skin is consumed;^[b]
    the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs.
¹⁴ They are torn from the tent in which they trusted
    and are brought to the king of terrors.^(J)
15 In their tents nothing remains;
    sulfur is scattered upon their habitations.^(K)
16 Their roots dry up beneath,
    and their branches wither above.^(L)
17 Their memory perishes from the earth,
    and they have no name in the street.^(M)
18 They are thrust from light into darkness
    and driven out of the world.
¹⁹ They have no offspring or descendant among their people
    and no survivor where they used to live.^(N)
20 They of the west are appalled at their fate,
    and horror seizes those of the east.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly;
    such is the place of those who do not know God.”^(O)

² “How long will you torment me
    and break me in pieces with words?
³ These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
    are you not ashamed to wrong me?
⁴ And even if it is true that I have erred,
    my error remains with me.^(P)
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
    and make my humiliation an argument against me,^(Q)
6 know then that God has put me in the wrong
    and closed his net around me.^(R)
7 Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered;
    I call aloud, but there is no justice.^(S)
8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
    and he has set darkness upon my paths.^(T)
9 He has stripped my glory from me
    and taken the crown from my head.^(U)
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
    he has uprooted my hope like a tree.^(V)
11 He has kindled his wrath against me
    and counts me as his adversary.^(W)
12 His troops come on together;
    they have thrown up siegeworks^[c] against me
    and encamp around my tent.^(X)

¹³ “He has put my family far from me,
    and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
¹⁵     the guests in my house have forgotten me;
my female servants count me as a stranger;
    I have become an alien in their eyes.^(Y)
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
    I must myself plead with him.
¹⁷ My breath is repulsive to my wife;
    I am loathsome to my own family.
¹⁸ Even young children despise me;
    when I rise, they talk against me.^(Z)
19 All my intimate friends abhor me,
    and those whom I love have turned against me.^(AA)
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
    and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.^(AB)
21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
    for the hand of God has touched me!^(AC)
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me,
    never satisfied with my flesh?^(AD)

²³ “O that my words were written down!
    O that they were inscribed in a book!^(AE)
24 O that with an iron pen and with lead
    they were engraved on a rock forever!^(AF)
25 For I know that my vindicator^[d] lives
    and that in the end he will stand upon the earth;^(AG)
26 and after my skin has been destroyed,
    then in my flesh I shall see God,^(AH)
27 whom I shall see on my side,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
    My heart faints within me!^(AI)
28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
    and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’^(AJ)
29 be afraid of the sword,
    for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
    so that you may know there is a judgment.”^(AK)