²¹Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
   for the hand of God has touched me!
²²Why 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!
²⁴O that with an iron pen and with lead
   they were engraved on a rock for ever!
²⁵For I know that my Redeemer^* lives,
   and that at the last he^* will stand upon the earth;^*
26and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
   then in^* my flesh I shall see God,^*
27whom I shall see on my side,^*
   and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
   My heart faints within me!