1
|
Then Job answered: |
|
2
|
“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all. |
|
3
|
Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying? |
|
4
|
I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you. |
|
5
|
But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief. |
|
6
|
Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away? |
|
7
|
Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family. |
|
8
|
You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me. |
|
9
|
His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes. |
|
10
|
They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me. |
|
11
|
God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked. |
|
12
|
I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target; |
|
13
|
His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground. |
|
14
|
He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior. |
|
15
|
I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust. |
|
16
|
My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes; |
|
17
|
yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure. |
|
18
|
O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest. |
|
19
|
Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high. |
|
20
|
My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God. |
|
21
|
Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor! |
|
22
|
For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return. |
|