² “I have heard many such things.
    You are all miserable comforters!
³ Shall vain words have an end?
    Or what provokes you that you answer?
⁴ I also could speak as you do.
    If your soul were in my soul’s place,
    I could join words together against you,
    and shake my head at you,
⁵ but I would strengthen you with my mouth.
    The solace of my lips would relieve you.

⁶ “Though I speak, my grief is not subsided.
    Though I forbear, what am I eased?
⁷ But now, God, you have surely worn me out.
    You have made all my company desolate.
⁸ You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me.
    My leanness rises up against me.
    It testifies to my face.
⁹ He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me.
    He has gnashed on me with his teeth.
    My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
¹⁰ They have gaped on me with their mouth.
    They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully.
    They gather themselves together against me.
¹¹ God delivers me to the ungodly,
    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, and he broke me apart.
    Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces.
    He has also set me up for his target.
¹³ His archers surround me.
    He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare.
    He pours out my bile on the ground.
¹⁴ He breaks me with breach on breach.
    He runs at me like a giant.
¹⁵ I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
    and have thrust my horn in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red with weeping.
    Deep darkness is on my eyelids,
¹⁷ although there is no violence in my hands,
    and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “Earth, don’t cover my blood.
    Let my cry have no place to rest.
¹⁹ Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven.
    He who vouches for me is on high.
²⁰ My friends scoff at me.
    My eyes pour out tears to God,
²¹ that he would maintain the right of a man with God,
    of a son of man with his neighbor!
²² For when a few years have come,
    I will go the way of no return.