[1] I have heard words like that before; the comfort you give is only torment. [3] Are you going to keep on talking forever? Do you always have to have the last word? [4] If you were in my place and I in yours, I could say everything you are saying. I could shake my head wisely and drown you with a flood of words. [5] I could strengthen you with advice and keep talking to comfort you. [6] But nothing I say helps, and being silent does not calm my pain. [7] You have worn me out, God; you have let my family be killed. [8] You have seized me; you are my enemy. I am skin and bones, and people take that as proof of my guilt. [9] In anger God tears me limb from limb; he glares at me with hate. [10] People sneer at me; they crowd around me and slap my face. [11] God has handed me over to evil people. [12] I was living in peace, but God took me by the throat and battered me and crushed me. God uses me for target practice [13] and shoots arrows at me from every side- arrows that pierce and wound me; and even then he shows no pity. [14] He wounds me again and again; he attacks like a soldier gone mad with hate. [15] I mourn and wear clothes made of sackcloth, and I sit here in the dust defeated. [16] I have cried until my face is red, and my eyes are swollen and circled with shadows, [17] but I am not guilty of any violence, and my prayer to God is sincere. [18] O Earth, don't hide the wrongs done to me! Don't let my call for justice be silenced! [19] There is someone in heaven to stand up for me and take my side. [20] My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God. [21] I want someone to plead with God for me, as one pleads for a friend. [22] My years are passing now, and I walk the road of no return.
