9He has stripped me of my honor

and removed the crown from my head.

10He tears me down on every side till I am gone;

he uproots my hope like a tree.

11His anger burns against me;

he counts me among his enemies.

12His troops advance in force;

they build a siege ramp against me

and encamp around my tent.

13“He has alienated my brothers from me;

my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14My kinsmen have gone away;

my friends have forgotten me.

15My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger;

they look upon me as an alien.

16I summon my servant, but he does not answer,

though I beg him with my own mouth.

17My breath is offensive to my wife;

I am loathsome to my own brothers.

18Even the little boys scorn me;

when I appear, they ridicule me.

19All my intimate friends detest me;

those I love have turned against me.

20I am nothing but skin and bones;

I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.^a

21“Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,

for the hand of God has struck me.

22Why do you pursue me as God does?

Will you never get enough of my flesh?

23“Oh, that my words were recorded,

that they were written on a scroll,

24that they were inscribed with an iron tool on^b lead,

or engraved in rock forever!

25I know that my Redeemer^c lives,

and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.^d

26And after my skin has been destroyed,

yet^e in^f my flesh I will see God;

27I myself will see him

with my own eyes—I, and not another.

How my heart yearns within me!

28“If you say, ‘How we will hound him,

since the root of the trouble lies in him,^g’

29you should fear the sword yourselves;

for wrath will bring punishment by the sword,

and then you will know that there is judgment.^h”