Job

1-2I have heard words like that before;

the comfort you give is only torment.

3Are you going to keep on talking forever?

Do you always have to have the last word?

4If you were in my place and I in yours,

I could say everything you are saying.

I could shake my head wisely

and drown you with a flood of words.

5I could strengthen you with advice

and keep talking to comfort you.

6But nothing I say helps,

and being silent does not calm my pain.

7You have worn me out, God;

you have let my family be killed.

8You have seized me; you are my enemy.

I am skin and bones,

and people take that as proof of my guilt.+

9In anger God tears me limb from limb;

he glares at me with hate.

10People sneer at me;

they crowd around me and slap my face.

11God has handed me over to evil people.

12I was living in peace,

but God took me by the throat

and battered me and crushed me.

God uses me for target practice

13and shoots arrows at me from every side—

arrows that pierce and wound me;

and even then he shows no pity.

14He wounds me again and again;

he attacks like a soldier gone mad with hate.

15I mourn and wear clothes made of sackcloth,

and I sit here in the dust defeated.

16I have cried until my face is red,

and my eyes are swollen and circled with shadows,

17but I am not guilty of any violence,

and my prayer to God is sincere.

18O Earth, don't hide the wrongs done to me!

Don't let my call for justice be silenced!

19 There is someone in heaven

to stand up for me and take my side.

20My friends scorn me;

my eyes pour out tears to God.

21I want someone to plead with God for me,

as one pleads for a friend.

22My years are passing now,

and I walk the road of no return.