[1] Then Job answered: [2] "I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all! [3] Will windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? [4] I also could speak as you do, if your soul were in my place. I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you; [5] but I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips would relieve your grief. [6] "Though I speak, my grief is not relieved; and though I stop, how am I eased? [7] But now He has made me weary; You have made desolate all my company. [8] You have filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me; and my leanness has risen up and bears witness to my face. [9] He has torn me in His wrath, and He has carried a grudge against me. He has gnashed me with His teeth; my enemy sharpens His gaze upon me. [10] They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have struck me upon the cheek with reproach; they have gathered themselves together against me. [11] God has delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. [12] I was at ease, but He has shattered me. He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for His target. [13] His archers surround me; He splits open my kidneys and does not pity; He pours out my gall upon the ground. [14] He pierces me with thrust after thrust; He rushes upon me like a warrior. [15] "I have sewn sackcloth over my skin and thrust my horn into the dust. [16] My face is inflamed with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death, [17] though not for any violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. [18] "O earth, do not cover my blood, and let my cry have no resting place. [19] Also now, look, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. [20] My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears unto God. [21] Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbor! [22] "For when a few years have passed, I will go the way from which I will not return.
