[1] Then Job answered and said, [2] “I have heard many such things; Troublesome comforters are you all. [3] “Is there no end to windy words? Or what pains you that you answer? [4] “I too could speak like you, If your soul were in the place of my soul. I could compose words against you And shake my head at you. [5] “I could encourage you with my mouth, And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain. [6] “If I speak, my pain is not lessened, And if I cease, what will go forth from me? [7] “But now He has exhausted me; You have made desolate all my company. [8] “You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my leanness rises up against me, It answers to my face. [9] “His anger has torn me and hunted me down; He has gnashed at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens his eyes to look at me. [10] “They have opened their mouth wide at me; They have struck me on the cheek in reproach; They have massed themselves against me. [11] “God hands me over to ruffians And tosses me into the hands of the wicked. [12] “I was at ease, but He shattered me, And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target. [13] “His arrows surround me. Without mercy He splits my kidneys open; He pours out my gall 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 the shadow of death is on my eyelids, [17] Why?—because there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure. [18] “O earth, do not cover my blood, And let 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] “O that a man might argue with God As a man with his neighbor! [22] “For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.
