19. All my close friends despise me; those I love have turned against me.
20. My bones cling to my skin and my flesh; I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21. “Have pity on me my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
22. Why do you pursue me—like God? Are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23. Oh that my words were written, that they were recorded in a scroll
24. that with an iron pen and lead, they were engraved in stone forever!
25. “Yet I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end, He will stand on earth.
26. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
27. I myself will see Him with my own eyes, I and not a stranger. My heart grows weak within me.
28. “If you say, ‘How we will pursue him, since the root of the matter is found in him;’
29. then you should fear the sword for yourselves; for wrath brings the punishments of the sword— so that you may know judgment!”