1. Job replied,
2. "I've heard many of those things before. You are terrible at comforting me!
3. Your speeches go on forever. Won't they ever end? What's wrong with you? Why do you keep on arguing?
4. If you and I changed places, I could say the same things you are saying. I could make fine speeches against you. I could shake my head at you.
5. But what I might say would give you hope. My words of comfort would help you.
6. "If I speak, it doesn't help me. And if I keep quiet, my pain doesn't go away.
7. God has worn me out completely. He has destroyed my whole family.
8. People can see the condition he has put me in. My thin body stands as a witness against me.
9. God is angry with me. He attacks me and tears me up. He grinds his teeth at me. He stares at me as if he were my enemy.
10. People make fun of me. They slap my face and laugh at me. All of them join together against me.
11. God has turned me over to sinful people. He has handed me over to them.
12. Everything was going well with me. But he broke me into pieces like a clay pot. He grabbed me by the neck and crushed me. He has taken aim at me.
13. He shoots his arrows at me from all sides. Without pity, he stabs me in the kidneys. He spills my insides on the ground.
14. He smashes through me as if I were a wall. He rushes at me like a fighting man.
15. "I've sewed black cloth over my skin. All I can do is sit here in the dust.
16. My face is red from crying. I have deep circles under my eyes.
17. But I haven't harmed anyone. My prayers to God are pure.
18. "Earth, please don't cover up my blood! May God always hear my cry for help!
19. Even now my witness is in heaven. The one who speaks up for me is there.
20. My go-between is my friend as I pour out my tears to God.
21. He makes his appeal to God to help me as a man begs someone to help his friend.