1Then Job answered and said:2“I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. (Job 12:3; Job 13:4)3Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? (Job 15:2)4I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. (2Ki 19:21; Ps 22:7; Ps 109:25; Isa 37:22; Jer 18:16; La 2:15; Mt 27:39; Mr 15:29)5I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.6“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?7Surely now God has worn me out; he has[1] made desolate all my company. (Job 1:15; Job 15:34)8And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face. (Ru 1:21; Job 10:17; Ps 109:24)9He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. (Job 18:4; Job 30:21; Ps 35:16; Ps 37:12; Ps 112:10; La 2:16; Ho 6:1; Am 1:11; Ac 7:54)10Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. (1Ki 22:24; Ps 3:7; Ps 22:13; Ps 35:15; Isa 50:6; La 3:30; Mic 5:1; Ac 23:2)11God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked.12I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; (Job 7:20; La 3:12)13his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. (Job 20:25; Job 27:22; Jer 50:29; La 2:11)14He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. (Job 15:26; Job 30:14)15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. (2Sa 3:31; Ps 7:5; Ps 75:10)16My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, (Job 3:5)17although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. (Isa 53:9)18“O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. (Ge 4:10; Isa 26:21; Eze 24:7)19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. (Ps 89:37; Ps 148:1; Ro 1:9)20My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, (Job 12:5)21that he would argue the case of a man with God, as[2] a son of man does with his neighbor. (Job 31:35)22For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return. (Job 10:21)