[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.