1And Job made answer and said,

2Such things have frequently come to my ears: you are comforters who only give trouble.

3May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is troubling you to make answer to them?

4It would not be hard for me to say such things if your souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against you, and shaking my head at you:

5I might give you strength with my mouth, and not keep back the comfort of my lips.

6If I say what is in my mind, my pain becomes no less: and if I keep quiet, how much of it goes from me?

7But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and I am in the grip of all my trouble.

8It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face.

9I am broken by his wrath, and his hate has gone after me; he has made his teeth sharp against me: my haters are looking on me with cruel eyes;

10Their mouths are open wide against me; the blows of his bitter words are falling on my face; all of them come together in a mass against me.

11God gives me over to the power of sinners, sending me violently into the hands of evil-doers.

12I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands; he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits; he has put me up as a mark for his arrows.

13His bowmen come round about me; their arrows go through my body without mercy; my life is drained out on the earth.

14I am broken with wound after wound; he comes rushing on me like a man of war.

15I have made haircloth the clothing of my skin, and my horn is rolled in the dust.

16My face is red with weeping, and my eyes are becoming dark;

17Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my prayer is clean.

18O earth, let not my blood be covered, and let my cry have no resting-place!

19Even now my witness is in heaven, and the supporter of my cause is on high.

20My friends make sport of me; to God my eyes are weeping,

21So that he may give decision for a man in his cause with God, and between a son of man and his neighbour.

22For in a short time I will take the journey from which I will not come back.