²¹ Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
   for the hand of God has touched me!
²² Why do you, like God, pursue me,
   never satisfied with my flesh?

²³ ‘O that my words were written down!
   O that they were inscribed in a book!
²⁴ O that with an iron pen and with lead
   they were engraved on a rock for ever!
²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer lives,
   and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
²⁶ and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
   then in my flesh I shall see God,
²⁷ whom I shall see on my side,
   and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
   My heart faints within me!
²⁸ If you say, “How we will persecute him!”
   and, “The root of the matter is found in him”;
²⁹ be afraid of the sword,
   for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
   so that you may know there is a judgement.’