I Have Often Heard This

¹Job said:

²I have often heard this,

and it offers no comfort.

³So why don't you keep quiet?

What's bothering you?

⁴If I were in your place,

it would be easy to criticize

or to give advice.

⁵But I would offer hope

and comfort instead.

⁶If I speak, or if I don't,

I hurt all the same.

My torment continues.

⁷God has worn me down

and destroyed my family;

⁸my shriveled up skin proves

that I am his prisoner.

⁹God is my hateful enemy,

glaring at me and attacking

with his sharp teeth.

¹⁰Everyone is against me;

they sneer and slap my face.

¹¹And God is the one

who handed me over

to this merciless mob.

Everything Was Going Well

¹²Everything was going well,

until God grabbed my neck

and shook me to pieces.

God set me up as the target

¹³for his arrows,

and without showing mercy,

he slashed my stomach open,

spilling out my insides.

¹⁴God never stops attacking,

¹⁵and so, in my sorrow

I dress in sackcloth

and sit in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red with tears,

and dark shadows

circle my eyes,

¹⁷though I am not violent,

and my prayers are sincere.

¹⁸If I should die,

I beg the earth not to cover

my cry for justice.

¹⁹Even now, God in heaven[#Job 19.25.]

is both my witness

and my protector.

²⁰My friends have rejected me,

but God is the one I beg

²¹to show that I am right,

just as a friend should.

²²Because in only a few years,

I will be dead and gone.