| | 1 | Then Job replied: | |
| | 2 | "I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all! | |
| | 3 | Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing? | |
| | 4 | I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. | |
| | 5 | But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief. | |
| | 6 | "Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away. | |
| | 7 | Surely, O God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household. | |
| | 8 | You have bound me--and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me. | |
| | 9 | God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes. | |
| | 10 | Men open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me. | |
| | 11 | God has turned me over to evil men and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked. | |
| | 12 | All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target; | |
| | 13 | his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground. | |
| | 14 | Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior. | |
| | 15 | "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust. | |
| | 16 | My face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes; | |
| | 17 | yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure. | |
| | 18 | "O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest! | |
| | 19 | Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. | |
| | 20 | My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; | |
| | 21 | on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend. | |
| | 22 | "Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return. | |
