[1] Then Job answered: [2] I have heard many things like these. You are all miserable comforters. [3] Is there no end to your empty words? What provokes you that you continue testifying? [4] If you were in my place I could also talk like you. I could string words together against you and shake my head at you. [5] Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation from my lips would bring relief. [6] If I speak, my suffering is not relieved, and if I hold back, does any of it leave me? [7] Surely he has now exhausted me. You have devastated my entire family. [8] You have shriveled me up -it has become a witness; my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face. [9] His anger tears at me, and he harasses me. He gnashes his teeth at me. My enemy pierces me with his eyes. [10] They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join themselves together against me. [11] God hands me over to the unjust; he throws me to the wicked. [12] I was at ease, but he shattered me; he seized me by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target; [13] his archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground. [14] He breaks through my defenses again and again; he charges at me like a warrior. [15] I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my strength in the dust. [16] My face has grown red with weeping, and darkness covers my eyes, [17] although my hands are free from violence and my prayer is pure. [18] Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help find no resting place. [19] Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is in the heights! [20] My friends scoff at me as I weep before God. [21] I wish that someone might argue for a man with God just as anyone would for a friend. [22] For only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return.
