1Then Job answered:
1And Job answered and said:
2“I have heard many things like these;
miserable comforters are you all.
2“I have heard many such things, all of you comforters of trouble.
3Is there no end to your long-winded speeches?
What provokes you to continue testifying?
3Is an end to words of wind? Or what compels you that you answer?
4I could also speak like you
if you were in my place;
I could heap up words against you
and shake my head at you.
4I also could speak as you, if your soul were in place of my soul; I could join together words against you, and shake at you with my head.
5But I would encourage you with my mouth,
and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.
5I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips would bring relief.
6Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved,
and if I hold back, how will it go away?
6If I speak, my sorrow is not relieved; and if I cease, how will it go from me?
7Surely He has now exhausted me;
You have devastated all my family.
7Surely now He has worn me out; You have devastated all my company.
8You have bound me, and it has become a witness;
my frailty rises up and testifies against me.
8You have bound me—it is a witness; and my leanness rises up against me; it testifies against my face.
9His anger has torn me and opposed me;
He gnashes His teeth at me.
My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
9In His anger He tears me and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His eyes against me.
10They open their mouths against me
and strike my cheeks with contempt;
they join together against me.
10They gape at me with their mouth, in scorn they strike my cheeks; as one they mass themselves against me.
11God has delivered me to unjust men;
He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.
11God shuts me up to the ungodly, and upon the hands of the wicked He wrings me out.
12I was at ease, but He shattered me;
He seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has set me up as His target;
12I was at ease, and He broke me; and He seized me by my neck and shattered me, and stood me up for Him as a target.
13His archers surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and spills my gall on the ground.
13His archers circle round against me; He splits my kidneys and does not spare; He pours out my gall on the ground.
14He breaks me with wound upon wound;
He rushes me like a mighty warrior.
14He breaches me, breach upon face of the breach; He runs upon me like a warrior.
15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
I have buried my horn in the dust.
15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and I have thrust my horn into the dust.
16My face is red with weeping,
and deep shadows ring my eyes;
16My face is red from weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death,
17yet my hands are free of violence
and my prayer is pure.
17although violence is not in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
18O earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry for help never be laid to rest.
18O earth, may you not cover my blood, and let there not be a place for my cry!
19Even now my witness is in heaven,
and my advocate is on high.
19Even now, behold! My testimony is in the heavens, and my witness is in the heights.
20My friends are my scoffers
as my eyes pour out tears to God.
20My friends are mocking me; my eye pours out to God.
21Oh, that a man might plead with God
as he pleads with his neighbor!
21And he reasons for a man with God, and as a son of man for his friend.
22For when only a few years are past
I will go the way of no return.
22For the years of my number have come, and the path of no return I shall walk.