1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “I have heard many things like these; all of you are miserable comforters.
3 Is there a limit to windy words? What provokes you that you answer?
4 I myself also could talk as you, if you were in my place; I could join against you with words, and I could shake at you with my head.
5 I could encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would ease the pain.
6 If I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I cease, how much will leave me?
7 “Surely now he has worn me out; you have devastated all my company.
8 Thus you shriveled me up; it became a witness. And my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.
9 His wrath has torn, and he has been hostile toward me; he gnashed at me with his teeth. My foe sharpens his eyes against me.
10 They gaped at me with their mouth; they struck my cheeks with disgrace; they have massed themselves together against me.
11 God delivers me to an evil one, and he casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 “I was at ease, then he broke me in two, and he seized me by my neck; then he shattered me and set me up as a target for him.
13 His archers surround me; he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion; he pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breached me breach upon breach; he rushes at me like a warrior.
15 “I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and I have inserted my pride in the dust.
16 My face is red because of weeping, and deep shadows are on my eyelids,
17 although violence is not on my hands, and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, you should not cover my blood, and let there be no place for my cry for help.
19 So now look, my witness is in the heavens, and he who vouches for me is in the heights.
20 My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,
21 and it argues for a mortal with God, and as a human for his friend.
22 Indeed, after a few years have come, then I will go the way from which I will not return.