¹ Then Job answered, ² “I have heard many such things;
Sorry comforters are you all. ³ “Is there no limit to windy words?
Or what plagues you that you answer? ⁴ “I too could speak like you,
If I were in your place.
I could compose words against you
And shake my head at you. ⁵ “I could strengthen you with my mouth,
And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain. Job Says God Shattered Him ⁶ “If I speak, my pain is not lessened,
And if I hold back, what has left me? ⁷ “But now He has exhausted me;
You have laid waste all my company. ⁸ “You have shriveled me up,
It has become a witness;
And my leanness rises up against me,
It testifies to my face. ⁹ “His anger has torn me and hunted me down,
He has gnashed at me with His teeth;
My adversary glares at me. ¹⁰ “They have gaped at me with their mouth,
They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt;
They have massed themselves against me. ¹¹ “God hands me over to ruffians
And tosses me into the hands of the wicked. ¹² “I was at ease, but He shattered me,
And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;
He has also set me up as His target. ¹³ “His arrows surround me.
Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;
He pours out my gall on the ground. ¹⁴ “He breaks through me with breach after breach;
He runs at me like a warrior. ¹⁵ “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
And thrust my horn in the dust. ¹⁶ “My face is flushed from weeping,
And deep darkness is on my eyelids, ¹⁷ Although there is no violence in my hands,
And my prayer is pure. ¹⁸ “O earth, do not cover my blood,
And let there be no resting place for my cry. ¹⁹ “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
And my advocate is on high. ²⁰ “My friends are my scoffers;
My eye weeps to God. ²¹ “O that a man might plead with God
As a man with his neighbor! ²² “For when a few years are past,
I shall go the way of no return.