1. Then Job answered,
2. “Oh that my anguish were weighed,and all my calamity laid in the balances!
3. For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas,therefore have my words been rash.
4. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me.My spirit drinks up their poison.The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
5. Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass?Or does the ox low over his fodder?
6. Can that which has no flavour be eaten without salt?Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
7. My soul refuses to touch them.They are as loathsome food to me.
8. “Oh that I might have my request,that God would grant the thing that I long for,
9. even that it would please God to crush me;that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
10. Be it still my consolation,yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare,that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
11. What is my strength, that I should wait?What is my end, that I should be patient?
12. Is my strength the strength of stones?Or is my flesh of bronze?
13. Isn’t it that I have no help in me,That wisdom is driven quite from me?
14. “To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend;even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15. My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook,as the channel of brooks that pass away;
16. Which are black by reason of the ice,in which the snow hides itself.
17. In the dry season, they vanish.When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
18. The caravans that travel beside them turn away.They go up into the waste, and perish.