1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “I have hearde[ch. 12:3] many such things;
f[ch. 13:4] miserable comforters are you all.
3 Shallg[ch. 15:2] windy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
andh2 Kgs. 19:21; Ps. 22:7; 109:25; Isa. 37:22; Jer. 18:16; Lam. 2:15; Matt. 27:39; Mark 15:29 shake my head at you.
5 I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
6 If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
7 Surely now God has worn me out;
i[ch. 15:34]; See ch. 1:15-19 he has made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up,
which isjch. 10:17; [Ruth 1:21] a witness against me,
and myk[Ps. 109:24] leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
9 He haslch. 18:4; Hos. 6:1; Amos 1:11 torn me in his wrathmch. 30:21 and hated me;
he hasnPs. 35:16; 37:12; 112:10; Lam. 2:16; Acts 7:54 gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 Men haveoPs. 22:13 gaped at me with their mouth;
they havepPs. 3:7; Isa. 50:6; Lam. 3:30; Mic. 5:1; [1 Kgs. 22:24; Acts 23:2] struck me insolently on the cheek;
theyqPs. 35:15 mass themselves together against me.
11 God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as hisrLam. 3:12; [ch. 7:20] target;
13 hissJer. 50:29 archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneystch. 27:22 and does not spare;
heuch. 20:25; [Lam. 2:11] pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks me withvch. 30:14 breach upon breach;
hewch. 15:26 runs upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewedxSee 2 Sam. 3:31 sackcloth upon my skin
and have laidy[Ps. 75:10] my strengthz[Ps. 7:5] in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids isaSee ch. 3:5 deep darkness,
17 although there is nobIsa. 53:9 violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18 O earth,cIsa. 26:21; Ezek. 24:7 cover not my blood,
and let myd[Gen. 4:10] cry find no resting place.
19 Even now, behold, myePs. 89:37; Rom. 1:9 witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me isf[Ps. 148:1] on high.
20 My friendsg[ch. 12:5] scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21 that he wouldh[ch. 31:35] argue the case of a man with God,
as a son of man does with his neighbor.
22 For when a few years have come
I shall go the wayiSee ch. 10:21 from which I shall not return.