² I have heard many such things:
^[a]Miserable comforters are ye all.
³ Shall ^[b]vain words have an end?
Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?
⁴ I also could speak as ye do;
If your soul were in my soul’s stead,
I could join words together against you,
And shake my head at you.
⁵ But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the solace of my lips would assuage your grief.

⁶ Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged;
And though I forbear, ^[c]what am I eased?
⁷ But now he hath made me weary:
Thou hast made desolate all my company.
⁸ And thou hast ^[d]laid fast hold on me, which is a witness against me:
And my leanness riseth up against me,
It testifieth to my face.
⁹ He hath torn me in his wrath, and ^[e]persecuted me;
He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth:
Mine adversary sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
¹⁰ They have gaped upon me with their mouth;
They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully:
They gather themselves together against me.
¹¹ God delivereth me to the ungodly,
And casteth me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, and he brake me asunder;
Yea, he hath taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces:
He hath also set me up for his mark.
¹³ His ^[f]archers compass me round about;
He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare;
He poureth out my gall upon the ground.
¹⁴ He breaketh me with breach upon breach;
He runneth upon me like a ^[g]giant.
¹⁵ I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin,
And have ^[h]laid my horn in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
¹⁷ Although there is no violence in my hands,
And my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ O earth, cover not thou my blood,
And let my cry ^[i]have no resting-place.
¹⁹ Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
And he that voucheth for me is on high.
²⁰ My friends scoff at me:
But mine eye poureth out tears unto God,
^21 [j]That he would maintain the right of a man with God,
And of a son of man with his neighbor!
²² For when a few years are come,
I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
17 My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct,
The grave is ready for me.
² Surely there are ^[k]mockers with me,
And mine eye dwelleth upon their provocation.

³ Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself;
Who is there that will strike hands with me?
⁴ For thou hast hid their heart from understanding:
Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
⁵ He that denounceth his friends for a ^[l]prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

⁶ But he hath made me a byword of the people;
And they spit in my face.
⁷ Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow,
And all my members are as a shadow.
⁸ Upright men shall be astonished at this,
And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
⁹ Yet shall the righteous hold on his way,
And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But as for you all, come on now again;
^[m]And I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days are past, my purposes are broken off,
Even the ^[n]thoughts of my heart.
¹² They change the night into day:
The light, say they, is near ^[o]unto the darkness.
¹³ If I ^[p]look for Sheol as my house;
If I have spread my couch in the darkness;
¹⁴ If I have said to ^[q]corruption, Thou art my father;
To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;
¹⁵ Where then is my hope?
And as for my hope, who shall see it?
¹⁶ It shall go down to the bars of Sheol,
When once there is rest in the dust.

² How long will ye hunt for words?
Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
³ Wherefore are we counted as beasts,
And are become unclean in your sight?
⁴ Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger,
Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?
Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
And the ^[r]spark of his fire shall not shine.
⁶ The light shall be dark in his tent,
And his lamp ^[s]above him shall be put out.
⁷ The steps of his strength shall be straitened,
And his own counsel shall cast him down.
⁸ For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
And he walketh upon the toils.
⁹ A gin shall take him by the heel,
And a snare shall lay hold on him.
¹⁰ A noose is hid for him in the ground,
And a trap for him in the way.
¹¹ Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
And shall chase him at his heels.
¹² His strength shall be hunger-bitten,
And calamity shall be ready ^[t]at his side.
¹³ The ^[u]members of his body shall be devoured,
Yea, the first-born of death shall devour his members.
¹⁴ He shall be rooted out of his tent wherein he trusteth;
And ^[v]he shall be brought to the king of terrors.
^15 [w]There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his:
Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
¹⁶ His roots shall be dried up beneath,
And above shall his branch ^[x]be cut off.
¹⁷ His remembrance shall perish from the earth,
And he shall have no name in the street.
¹⁸ He shall be driven from light into darkness,
And chased out of the world.
¹⁹ He shall have neither son nor son’s son among his people,
Nor any remaining where he sojourned.
^20 [y]They that come after shall be astonished at his day,
As they that went before ^[z]were affrighted.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

² How long will ye vex my soul,
And break me in pieces with words?
³ These ten times have ye reproached me:
Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me.
⁴ And be it indeed that I have erred,
Mine error remaineth with myself.
^5 [aa]If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,
And plead against me my reproach;
⁶ Know now that God hath ^[ab]subverted me in my cause,
And hath compassed me with his net.

⁷ Behold, I ^[ac]cry out of wrong, but I am not heard:
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass,
And hath set darkness in my paths.
⁹ He hath stripped me of my glory,
And taken the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone;
And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree.
¹¹ He hath also kindled his wrath against me,
And he counteth me unto him as one of his adversaries.
¹² His troops come on together,
And cast up their way against me,
And encamp round about my tent.

¹³ He hath put my brethren far from me,
And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed,
And my familiar friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ They that ^[ad]dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger:
I am an alien in their sight.
¹⁶ I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer,
Though I entreat him with my mouth.
¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife,
And ^[ae]my supplication to the children ^[af]of mine own mother.
¹⁸ Even young children despise me;
If I arise, they speak against me.
¹⁹ All ^[ag]my familiar friends abhor me,
And they whom I loved are turned against me.
²⁰ My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,
And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
²¹ Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends;
For the hand of God hath touched me.
²² Why do ye persecute me as God,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ Oh that my words were now written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
²⁴ That with an iron pen and lead
They were graven in the rock for ever!
^25 [ah]But as for me I know that my ^[ai]Redeemer liveth,
And at last he will stand up upon the ^[aj]earth:
^26 [ak]And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed,
Then without my flesh shall I see God;
²⁷ Whom I, even I, shall see, ^[al]on my side,
And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.
My ^[am]heart is consumed within me.
²⁸ If ye say, How we will persecute him!
And that the root of the matter is found in me;
²⁹ Be ye afraid of the sword:
For ^[an]wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword,
That ye may know there is a judgment.