1Then Job answered:

2“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.

3Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?

4I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

5But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

6Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?

7Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.

8You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

9His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

10They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.

11God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.

12I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;

13His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.

14He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.

15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.

16My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;

17yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.

18O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.

19Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.

20My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.

21Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!

22For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.