17 ¹My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me. ²Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? ³Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me? ⁴For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them. ⁵He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail. ⁶He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret. ⁷Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow. ⁸Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite. ⁹The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. ¹⁰But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you. ¹¹My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. ¹²They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness. ¹³If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. ¹⁴I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. ¹⁵And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? ¹⁶They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

18 ¹Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, ²How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak. ³Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight? ⁴He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place? ⁵Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. ⁶The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him. ⁷The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down. ⁸For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare. ⁹The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him. ¹⁰The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way. ¹¹Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet. ¹²His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side. ¹³It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength. ¹⁴His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors. ¹⁵It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. ¹⁶His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off. ¹⁷His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street. ¹⁸He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. ¹⁹He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings. ²⁰They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted. ²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

19 ¹Then Job answered and said, ²How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? ³These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. ⁴And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself. ⁵If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: ⁶Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. ⁷Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. ⁸He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. ⁹He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. ¹⁰He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. ¹¹He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. ¹²His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. ¹³He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. ¹⁴My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. ¹⁵They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. ¹⁶I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. ¹⁷My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body. ¹⁸Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. ¹⁹All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. ²⁰My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. ²¹Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. ²²Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? ²³Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! ²⁴That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! ²⁵For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: ²⁶And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: ²⁷Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. ²⁸But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? ²⁹Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.