19 Then Job answered and said,

² How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

³ These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

⁴ And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

⁵ If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

⁶ Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

⁷ Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

⁸ He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

⁹ He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰ He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

¹¹ He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

¹² His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

¹³ He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵ They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶ I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.

¹⁸ Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

¹⁹ All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

²⁰ My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

²¹ Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

²² Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

²⁴ That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

²⁵ For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

²⁶ And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

²⁷ Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

²⁸ But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

²⁹ Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

20 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

² Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.

³ I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

⁴ Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

⁵ That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

⁶ Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

⁷ Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

⁸ He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

⁹ The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

¹⁰ His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

¹¹ His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

¹² Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

¹³ Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

¹⁴ Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

¹⁵ He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶ He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

¹⁷ He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

¹⁸ That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

¹⁹ Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

²⁰ Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

²¹ There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

²² In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

²³ When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

²⁴ He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

²⁵ It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

²⁶ All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

²⁷ The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸ The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

²⁹ This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.