Study Desk

Then Job answered:

I have heard many things like these. You are all miserable comforters.^(a)

Is there no end to your empty^[a](b) words? What provokes you that you continue testifying?

If you were in my place I could also talk like you. I could string words together against you and shake my head at you.

Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.^(c)

Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved, and if I hold back, what have I lost?

Surely He^[b] has now exhausted me. You have devastated my entire family.

You have shriveled me up^[c]—it has become a witness; My frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.

His anger tears at me, and He harasses^(d) me. He gnashes His teeth at me. My enemy pierces me with His eyes.

They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt;^(e) they join themselves together against me.

God hands me over to unjust men;^[d] He throws me into the hands of the wicked.

I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as His target;^(f)

His archers^[e] surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground.

He breaks through my defenses again and again;^[f] He charges at me like a warrior.^(g)

I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my strength^[g] in the dust.^(h)

My face has grown red with weeping, and darkness⁽ⁱ⁾ covers my eyes,

although my hands are free from violence^(j) and my prayer is pure.

Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help find no resting place.^(k)

Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is in the heights!^(l)

My friends scoff at me as I weep before God.

I wish that someone might arbitrate between a man and God^(m) just as a man pleads for his friend.

For only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return.