¹Then Iyov [hated] answered and said,

²I have heard many such things: miserable comforters [are] you2f all.

³Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldens youi that youi answer?

⁴I also could speak as you2f [do] : if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake my head at you.

⁵[But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage [your grief] .

⁶Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and [though] I refrain (restrain; refrein from acting) , what am I eased?

⁷But now he has made me weary: youi have made desolate all my company.

⁸And youi have filled me with wrinkles, [which] is a witness [against me] : and my leanness rising up in me bears witness to my face.

⁹He tears [me] in his wrath, who hates me: he gnashes upon me with his teeth; my enemy sharpens his eyes upon me.

¹⁰They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.

¹¹God-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] has delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, but he has broken me asunder: he has also taken [me] by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

¹³His archers compass (go around, encircle; encompass) me round about, he cleaves my reins (literally, kidneys; figuratively, seat of emotion) asunder, and does not spare; he pours out my gall (something bitter or poisonous) upon the ground.

¹⁴He breaks me with breach (breaking forth; a break; opening, inlet) upon breach (breaking forth; a break; opening, inlet), he runs upon me like a giant.

¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

¹⁶My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death;

¹⁷Not for [any] injustice in my hands: also my prayer [is] pure.

¹⁸O earth, cover not youi my blood, and let my cry have no place.

¹⁹Also now, behold, my witness [is] in heaven, and my record [is] on high.

²⁰My friends scorn me: [but] my eye pours out [tears] unto God-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] .

²¹O that one might plead for a man with God-Elōhīm (The Living Word) [The Many Powered] , as a man [pleads] for his neighbour!

²²When a few years are come, then I shall go the way [from what place] I shall not return.