1 Then Job answered {anah: spoken response} and said {amar: speech introduction}:
2 How long will you torment{togyun: keep grieving} my soul and crush me with words{milim: verbal attacks}?
3 You have shamed me {takhlimuni: public disgrace} these ten times; you are not ashamed {bosh: moral blush} that you wrong me.
4 And even if {ve'af-omnam: strong concession} I have erred, my error remains {talin: keeps lodging} with me.
5 If indeed you magnify{magnify: act superior} yourselves against me and you make my reproach{reproach: public disgrace} a case against me.
6 Know, then, that God {eloah, Majestic Discipliner} has overturned my cause, and He has encircled His net {metsudo: trapping snare} around me.
7 Behold, I cry, “Violence!”{chamas: brutal wrong} yet I receive no answer; I shout for help{ashawe: desperate plea}, but there is no justice.
8 He {Eloah, Sovereign Restrainer} has fenced in my path {gadar: walled in}, and I do not pass over; and upon my pathways He places darkness.
9 He has stripped away my honor {kevodi: social esteem} and has taken the crown {ateret: royal emblem} off my head.
10 He {Eloah, Sovereign Opposer} breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; and He uproots my hope {tiqvah: future confidence} like a tree.
11 His anger{appo: flaring wrath} burned against me, and He regarded me as one of His adversaries{tsarayv: hostile rivals}.
12 Together they come, his troops {gedudav: armed bands} heap up {vayasollu: siege ramp} a road of attack against me, and they camp all around my tent.
13 My brothers, He {Eloah, Ordering Separation} has put far from me, and my acquaintances {yodea: known companions} are surely estranged from me.
14 My relatives {qerovai: close kin} have failed, and my acquaintances {meyuddaay: known associates} have forgotten me.
15 The sojourners{garei: resident aliens} of my house and my female servants consider me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner{nachri: social outsider} in their eyes.
16 I called to my servant {eved: household helper}, but he does not answer; with my own mouth I entreat him {etchanen: seek favor}.
17 My breath {ruach: life-breath} is strange to my wife, yet my pleading is to the children of my own body {beten: closest kin}.
18 Even young boys {avilim: mere youths} have despised me; when I rise, they speak against me {dabar: hostile speech}.
19 They abhor{tiavuni: treat as vile} me, all the men of my counsel{sod: inner circle}; even those I loved have turned against me.
20 My bone {atzmi: wasted frame} clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped {etmalleth: barely survived} with the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity {channuni: urgent appeal} on me, have pity on me—you my friends—for the hand of God {Eloah, Judge Who Struck} has touched me.
22 Why do you hunt me down {tirdfuni: relentless pursuit} as God {El, Righteous Judge} does, and why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh, that my words were now {efo: urgent plea} written; oh, that they were recorded in a book {sefer: lasting record}.
24 With an iron stylus{et: engraving pen} and lead, let them be cut into the rock forever{laad: without end}!
25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer {go'ali: kinsman-vindicator} lives, and at the last {acharon: final moment} he will arise upon the dust.
26 And after my skin{or: mortal covering} has been destroyed like this, yet from my flesh I will see God{Eloah, Final Vindicator}.
27 Whom I myself will see for myself, and my eyes will behold, and not another{stranger: someone else}; my kidneys{kilyotai: inner depths} are consumed within my bosom.
28 If you say, “Why do we pursue him?”—yet the root {shoresh: underlying cause} of the matter is found {nimtsa: discovered within} in me.
29 Be afraid for yourselves because of the sword, for wrath{chemah: burning rage} brings the punishments of the sword, so that you may know judgment{shadon: judicial reckoning}.