^1. Then Job replied:

^2. "I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all!

^3. Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?

^4. I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.

^5. But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

^6. "Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.

^7. Surely, O God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.

^8. You have bound me--and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

^9. God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

^10. Men open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.

^11. God has turned me over to evil men and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

^12. All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;

^13. his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.

^14. Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.

^15. "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.

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

^17. yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.

^18. "O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!

^19. Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.

^20. My intercessor is my friend [1] as my eyes pour out tears to God;

^21. on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.

^22. "Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return.