2.1 KiB
Troublesome Comforters
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Then Job answered and said,
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"I have heard many such things; Troublesome comforters are you all.
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Is there no end to windy words? Or what pains you that you answer?
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I too could speak like you, If your soul was in the place of my soul. I could compose words against you And shake my head at you.
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I could encourage you with my mouth, And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.
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"If I speak, my pain is not lessened, And if I cease, what will go forth from me?
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But now He has exhausted me; You have made desolate all my company.
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You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my leanness rises up against me, It answers to my face.
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His anger has torn me and hunted me down; He has gnashed at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens his eyes to look at me.
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They have opened their mouth wide at me; They have struck me on the cheek in reproach; They have massed themselves against me.
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God hands me over to ruffians And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.
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I was at ease, but He shattered me, And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target.
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His arrows surround me. Without mercy He splits my kidneys open; He pours out my gall on the ground.
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He breaks through me with breach after breach; He runs at me like a warrior.
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I have sewed sackcloth over my skin And thrust my horn in the dust.
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My face is flushed from weeping, And the shadow of death is on my eyelids,
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Why?--because there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.
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"O earth, do not cover my blood, And let there be no resting place for my cry.
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Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate is on high.
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My friends are my scoffers; My eye weeps to God.
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O that a man might argue with God As a man with his neighbor!
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For when a few years are past, I shall go the way of no return.