1Then Job replied,:
2“How long will you three torment me
3You have already insulted me many [HYP] times;
4Even if it were true that I have done things that are wrong,
5If you truly think that you are better than I am,
6you need to realize that it is God who has caused me to suffer.
7“I cry out, ‘Help me!’,
8It is as though [MET] God has blocked my way,
9He has ◄taken away my good reputation/caused people not to honor me any more►;
10He batters me from every side, and I will soon die.
11He attacks me because he is extremely angry with me [MET],
12It is as though he sends his army to attack me;
13“God has caused my brothers to abandon me,
14All my relatives and good friends have left me.
15The people who were guests in my house have forgotten me,
16When I summon my servants, they do not answer;
17My wife does not want to come close to me because my breath smells very bad,
18Even young children despise me;
19My dearest friends detest me,
20My body is only skin and bones;
21“I plead with you, my three friends, pity me,
22Why do you cause me to suffer like God does?
23“I wish/desire that someone would take these words of mine
24Or else, I wish that he would carve them on a rock with ◄a chisel/an iron tool►
25But I know that the one who vindicates/defends me in court is alive,
26And even after diseases have eaten away my skin,
27I will see him myself;
28“If you three men say, ‘What more can we do to cause Job to suffer?’
29you should be afraid that God will punish [MTY] you;