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.