[1] Then Job answered and said: [2] "I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. [3] Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? [4] I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. [5] I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. [6] "If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? [7] Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. [8] And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face. [9] He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. [10] Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. [11] God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. [12] I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; [13] his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. [14] He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. [15] I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. [16] My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, [17] although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. [18] "O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. [19] Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. [20] My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, [21] that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor. [22] For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
