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v1
Then ^[Hebrew “And”] Job answered and said,
v2
“How long ^[Literally “Until when”] will you ^[Plural] torment me ^[Hebrew “my soul,” or “my self”] and crush me with words?
v3
These ten times you ^[Plural] have disgraced me; you ^[Plural] are not ashamed that you ^[Plural] have attacked ^[Or “astonished”] me.
v4
And what is more, if I have truly erred, my error remains with me.
v5
If indeed you ^[Plural] must magnify yourselves against me, and you ^[Plural] must let my disgrace argue against me,
v6
know then that God has wronged me and has surrounded me with his net.
v7
“Look, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but ^[Or “and”] I am not answered; I cry out, but ^[Hebrew “and”] there is no justice.
v8
He has walled up my way so that ^[Hebrew “and”] I cannot pass; and he has set darkness upon my paths.
v9
He has taken my glory from me, and he has removed the crown of ^[Or “from”] my head.
v10
He has broken me down all around, and I am gone. And he has uprooted my hope like a tree,
v11
and he has kindled his wrath against me, and he has counted me as one of his foes. ^[Literally “he has counted me for him as his foes”]
v12
His troops have come together and have thrown up their rampart ^[Or “siege works”; compare NRSV] against me and have encamped around my tent.
v13
“He has removed my kinsfolk from me, and my acquaintances have only ^[Or “completely”] turned aside from me.
v14
My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me.
v15
The sojourners in ^[Or “of”] my house and my slave women count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
v16
I call to my servant, but ^[Hebrew “and”] he does not answer; I must personally ^[Literally “with my mouth”] plead with him.
v17
My breath is repulsive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own family. ^[Literally “to the children of my womb”]
v18
Little boys also despise me; when I rise, then ^[Hebrew “and”] they talk against me.
v19
All my intimate friends ^[Literally “the men of the circle of my confidants”] abhor me, and these whom I have loved have turned against me.
v20
My bones ^[Collective singular] cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
v21
“Pity me, pity me, you my friends, for God’s hand has touched me.
v22
Why do you ^[Plural] pursue me like God? And are not satisfied with my flesh?
v23
“O that ^[Literally “Who then shall give and”] my words could be written down! O that they could be inscribed in a scroll! ^[Literally “Who shall give in the scroll and they could be inscribed”]
v24
That with a pen of iron and with lead they might be engraved on a rock forever!
v25
But ^[Hebrew “And”] I myself ^[Emphatic personal pronoun] know that my redeemer is alive, and at the last he will stand up upon the earth. ^[Literally “dust”]
v26
And after my skin has been thus destroyed, but ^[Hebrew “and”] from ^[Or “without”] my flesh I will see God,
v27
whom I will see for myself, ^[Literally “I myself will see for myself”; emphatic personal pronoun as subject to the singular verb] and whom my eyes will see and not a stranger. ^[Or “another”] My heart faints within me. ^[Literally “My kidneys fail in my lap”; see NRSV]
v28
“If you ^[Plural] say, ‘How will we persecute him?’ And ‘The root of the trouble is found’ in me, ^[Or “‘The root of the trouble is found’ in him”]
v29
be afraid for yourselves because of the sword, ^[Literally “from the faces of the sword”] for wrath brings punishment by ^[Literally “of”] the sword, so that you may know that there is judgment.”