[1] Then Job responded, [2] “I have heard many things like these; Miserable comforters are you all! [3] “Is there no end to windy words? Or what provokes you that you answer? [4] “I too could speak like you, If only I were in your place. I could compose words against you And shake my head at you. [5] “Or I could strengthen you with my mouth, And the condolence of my lips could lessen your pain. [6] “If I speak, my pain is not lessened, And if I refrain, what pain leaves me? [7] “But now He has exhausted me; You have laid waste all my group of loved ones. [8] “And You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my infirmity rises up against me, It testifies to my face. [9] “His anger has torn me and hunted me down, He has gnashed at me with His teeth; My enemy glares at me. [10] “They have gaped at me with their mouths, They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt; They have massed themselves against me. [11] “God hands me over to criminals, And tosses me into the hands of the wicked. [12] “I was at ease, but He shattered me, And He has grasped me by my neck and shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target. [13] “His arrows surround me. He splits my kidneys open without mercy; He pours out my bile on the ground. [14] “He breaks through me with breach after breach; He runs at me like a warrior. [15] “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin, And thrust my horn in the dust. [16] “My face is flushed from weeping, And deep darkness is on my eyelids, [17] Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure. [18] “Earth, do not cover my blood, And may there be no resting place for my cry. [19] “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate is on high. [20] “My friends are my scoffers; My eye weeps to God, [21] That one might plead for a man with God As a son of man with his neighbor! [22] “For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.
