1 Then Job replied:

2 "I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!

3 Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4 I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.

5 But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

6 "Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.

7 Surely, God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.

8 You have shriveled me up —and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

9 God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

10 People open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.

11 God has turned me over to the ungodly and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

12 All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;

13 his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.

14 Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.

15 "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping, dark shadows ring my eyes;

17 yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.

18 "Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!

19 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.

20 My intercessor is my friend "as my eyes pour out tears to God;

21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.

22 "Only a few years will pass before I take the path of no return.

1 Then Job answered and said,

2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are you all.

3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldens you that you answer?

4 I also could speak as you do: if your soul were in my soul' stead, 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 should assuage your grief.

6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?

7 But now he has made me weary: you have made desolate all my company.

8 And you have filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me bears witness to my face.

9 He tears me in his wrath, who hates me: he gnashes on me with his teeth; my enemy sharpens his eyes on me.

10 They have gaped on me with their mouth; they have smitten me on the cheek reproachfully; 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 broken me asunder: he has also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

13 His archers compass me round about, he splits my reins asunder, and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.

14 He breaks me with breach on breach, he runs on me like a giant.

15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

17 Not for any injustice in my hands: also my prayer is pure.

18 O earth, cover not you my blood, and let my cry have no place.

19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.

20 My friends scorn me: but my eye pours out tears to God.

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

22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way from where I shall not return.