Job

¹ Job answered:

² pounding me with these harangues?

³ Do you have no conscience, abusing me like this?

⁴ what business is that of yours?

⁵ using my troubles as a stick to beat me?

⁶ he's the one who dragged me into this mess.

⁷ I call for help and no one bothers to stop.

⁸ he turned out all the lights—I'm stuck in the dark.

⁹ robbed me of all self-respect.

¹⁰ Then he yanked out hope by the roots.

¹¹ He treats me like his worst enemy.

¹² using every weapon he can think of, coming at me from all sides at once.

¹³ "God alienated my family from me;

¹⁴ My relatives and friends have all left; houseguests forget I ever existed.

¹⁵ look at me like they've never seen me before.

¹⁶ ignores me even though I plead with him.

¹⁷ I'm repulsive to my family.

¹⁸ when I come out, they taunt and jeer.

¹⁹ my dearest loved ones reject me.

²⁰ my life hangs by a thread.

²¹ God has come down hard on me!

²² Don't you ever tire of abusing me?

²³ "If only my words were written in a book—

²⁴ better yet, chiseled in stone!

²⁵ and eventually he'll take his stand on earth.

²⁶ And I'll see him—even though I get skinned alive!—

²⁷ Oh, how I long for that day!

²⁸ get him to see that his trouble is all his own fault?'

²⁹ Worry about your own sins and God's coming judgment, for judgment is most certainly on the way."