⁶ “If I speak, ^(D)my pain is not lessened,
And if I cease, what will go forth from me?
⁷ But now He has ^(E)exhausted me;
You have made ^(F)desolate all my company.
⁸ You have shriveled me up,
^(G)It has become a witness;
And my ^(H)leanness rises up against me,
It answers to my face.
⁹ His anger has ^(I)torn me and ^[b]hunted me down;
He has ^(J)gnashed at me with His teeth;
My ^(K)adversary sharpens his eyes to look at me.
¹⁰ They have ^(L)opened their mouth wide at me;
They have ^(M)struck me on the cheek in reproach;
They have ^(N)massed themselves against me.
¹¹ God hands me over to ruffians
And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, but ^(O)He shattered me,
And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;
He has also set me up as His ^(P)target.
¹³ His ^(Q)arrows surround me.
Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;
He pours out ^(R)my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ He ^(S)breaks through me with breach after breach;
He ^(T)runs at me like a warrior.
¹⁵ I have sewed ^(U)sackcloth over my skin
And ^(V)thrust my horn in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is flushed from ^(W)weeping,
^(X)And the shadow of death is on my eyelids,
¹⁷ Why?—because there is no ^(Y)violence in my hands,
And ^(Z)my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “O earth, do not cover my blood,
And let there be no resting place for my cry.
¹⁹ Even now, behold, ^(AA)my witness is in heaven,
And my ^[c]advocate is ^(AB)on high.
²⁰ My friends are my scoffers;
^(AC)My eye ^[d]weeps to God.
²¹ O that a man might argue with God
As a man with his neighbor!
²² For when a few years are past,
I shall go the way ^(AD)of no return.