1 Then Job answered and said:2 I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all!3 Is there no end to windy words? What ails you that you answer thus?4 I also could speak as you do, if your soul were in the place of my soul. I could heap up words against you, and shake my head at you.5 But I would assure you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips would be restrained.6 When I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I remain silent, how do I proceed?7 But now He has exhausted me; you have devastated my company.8 You have seized me as a witness; my deception rises up against me and testifies to my face.9 He tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; my adversary sharpens His eyes at me.10 They have gaped at me with their mouth, and struck me reproachfully on the cheek; they gather together against me.11 The Mighty God has delivered me to the perverse, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.12 I was at ease, but He has shattered me; He also has taken hold on my neck, and dashed me to pieces; He has set me up for His target.13 His archers surround me; He pierces my heart and does not pity; He pours out my gall on the ground.14 He breaks me with break upon break; He runs at me like a mighty man.15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and have thrust my horn into the dust.16 My face is flushed from weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;17 although no violence is in my hands, and my prayer is pure.18 O earth, do not cover my blood, and let my cry have no resting place!19 Even now, behold, my evidence is in Heaven, and my witness is on high.20 My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God.21 Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for the son of his friend!22 For when the number of years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return.