16. I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
17. My breath is strange to my wife,and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
18. Even young children despise me;when I rise they talk against me.
19. All my intimate friends abhor me,and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20. My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21. Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,for the hand of God has touched me!
22. Why do you, like God, pursue me?Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23. “Oh that my words were written!Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24. Oh that with an iron pen and leadthey were engraved in the rock forever!
25. For I know that my Redeemer lives,and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26. And after my skin has been thus destroyed,yet in my flesh I shall see God,