1 T hen Job answered and said:

2 “ I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all!

3 S hall words of wind have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

4 I also could speak as you do, If your soul were in my soul’s place. I could heap up words against you, And shake my head at you;

5 B ut I would strengthen you with my mouth, And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.

6 “ Though I speak, my grief is not relieved; And if I remain silent, how am I eased?

7 B ut now He has worn me out; You have made desolate all my company.

8 Y ou have shriveled me up, And it is a witness against me; My leanness rises up against me And bears witness to my face.

9 H e tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.

10 T hey gape at me with their mouth, They strike me reproachfully on the cheek, They gather together against me.

11 G od has delivered me to the ungodly, And turned me over to 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; He has set me up for His target,

13 H is archers surround me. He pierces my heart and does not pity; He pours out my gall on the ground.

14 H e breaks me with wound upon wound; He runs at me like a warrior.

15 “ I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, And laid my head in the dust.

16 M y face is flushed from weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

17 A lthough no violence is 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 S urely even now my witness is in heaven, And my evidence is on high.

20 M y friends scorn me; My eyes pour out tears to God.

21 O h, that one might plead for a man with God, As a man pleads for his neighbor!

22 F or when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return.