[1] Then Job answered: [2] "I have heard many such things; miserable
comforters are you all. [3] Shall 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, and 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; he
has made desolate all my company. [8] And he has shriveled me up, which is
a witness against me; and my leanness has risen up against me, it testifies
to my face. [9] He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me; he has gnashed
his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. [10] Men have
gaped at me with their mouth, they have struck me insolently upon the
cheek, they 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 asunder; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target, [13] his archers surround me. He slashes open
my kidneys, and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. [14] He
breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. [15] I
have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and have laid my strength in the dust.
[16] My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness; [17]
although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. [18] "O
earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. [19] Even
now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on
high. [20] My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, [21] that he
would maintain the right of a man with God, like that of a man with his
neighbor. [22] For when a few years have come I shall go the way whence I
shall not return.
