17. I am repulsive to my wife and loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18. Even young children despise me; when I get up, they speak against me.
19. All the men of my council and my familiar friends abhor me; those whom I loved are turned against me.
20. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin or gums of my teeth.
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, as if you were God, pursue and persecute me? [Acting like wild beasts] why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23. Oh, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book [carved on a tablet of stone]!
24. That with an iron pen and [molten] lead they were graven in the rock forever!