5. If you are trying to make yourselves look better than meby using my disgrace as an argument against me,
6. then I want you to know that God has wronged meand surrounded me with his net.
7. Indeed, I cry, ‘Help! I’m being attacked!’ but I get no response.I call for help, but there is no justice.
8. “God has blocked my path so that I can’t go on.He has made my paths dark.
9. He has stripped me of my honor.He has taken the crown off my head.
10. He beats me down on every side until I’m gone.He uproots my hope like a tree.
11. He is very angry at me.He considers me to be his enemy.
12. His troops assemble against me.They build a ramp to attack meand camp around my tent.
13. “My brothers stay far away from me.My friends are complete strangers to me.
14. My relatives and my closest friends have stopped coming.My house guests have forgotten me.
15. My female slaves consider me to be a stranger.I am like a foreigner to them.
16. I call my slave, but he doesn’t answer, though I beg him.
17. My breath offends my wife.I stink to my own children.
18. Even young children despise me.If I stand up, they make fun of me.
19. All my closest friends are disgusted with me.Those I love have turned against me.
20. I am skin and bones,and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21. “Have pity on me, my friends!Have pity on me because God’s hand has struck me down.
22. Why do you pursue me as God does?Why are you never satisfied with my flesh?