² “I have heard ^(A)many such things;
    ^(B)miserable comforters are you all.
³ Shall ^(C)windy words have an end?
    Or what provokes you that you answer?
⁴ I also could speak as you do,
    if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
    and ^(D)shake my head at you.
⁵ I could strengthen you with my mouth,
    and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

⁶ “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
    and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
⁷ Surely now God has worn me out;
    ^(E)he has^[a] made desolate all my company.
⁸ And he has shriveled me up,
    which is ^(F)a witness against me,
and my ^(G)leanness has risen up against me;
    it testifies to my face.
⁹ He has ^(H)torn me in his wrath ^(I)and hated me;
    he has ^(J)gnashed his teeth at me;
    my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
¹⁰ Men have ^(K)gaped at me with their mouth;
    they have ^(L)struck me insolently on the cheek;
    they ^(M)mass themselves together against me.
¹¹ God gives me up to the ungodly
    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
    he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his ^(N)target;
¹³     his ^(O)archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys ^(P)and does not spare;
    he ^(Q)pours out my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ He breaks me with ^(R)breach upon breach;
    he ^(S)runs upon me like a warrior.
¹⁵ I have sewed ^(T)sackcloth upon my skin
    and have laid ^(U)my strength ^(V)in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
    and on my eyelids is ^(W)deep darkness,
¹⁷ although there is no ^(X)violence in my hands,
    and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “O earth, ^(Y)cover not my blood,
    and let my ^(Z)cry find no resting place.
¹⁹ Even now, behold, my ^(AA)witness is in heaven,
    and he who testifies for me is ^(AB)on high.
²⁰ My friends ^(AC)scorn me;
    my eye pours out tears to God,
²¹ that he would ^(AD)argue the case of a man with God,
    as^[b] a son of man does with his neighbor.
²² For when a few years have come
    I shall go the way ^(AE)from which I shall not return.

³ “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
    who is there who will put up ^(AI)security for me?
⁴ Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵ He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
    the ^(AJ)eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ “He has made me ^(AK)a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom men spit.
⁷ My ^(AL)eye has grown dim from vexation,
    and all my members are like ^(AM)a shadow.
⁸ The upright are ^(AN)appalled at this,
    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous holds to his way,
    and he who has ^(AO)clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But you, ^(AP)come on again, all of you,
    and I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My ^(AQ)days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
¹² They ^(AR)make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’^[c]
13 If I hope for ^(AS)Sheol as ^(AT)my house,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the bars of ^(AU)Sheol?
    Shall we ^(AV)descend together ^(AW)into the dust?”^[d]

² “How long will you ^(AY)hunt for words?
    Consider, and then we will speak.
³ Why are we counted as ^(AZ)cattle?
    Why are we stupid in your sight?
⁴ You who ^(BA)tear yourself in your anger,
    shall the earth be forsaken for you,
    or ^(BB)the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ “Indeed, ^(BC)the light of the wicked is put out,
    and the flame of his fire does not shine.
⁶ The light is ^(BD)dark in his tent,
    and his lamp above him is put out.
⁷ His strong steps are shortened,
    and his ^(BE)own schemes throw him down.
⁸ For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
    and he walks on its mesh.
^9 (BF)A trap seizes him by the heel;
    a snare lays hold of him.
¹⁰ A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
    a trap for him in the path.
^11 (BG)Terrors frighten him on every side,
    and chase him at his heels.
¹² His strength is famished,
    and calamity is ^(BH)ready for his stumbling.
¹³ It consumes the parts of his skin;
    ^(BI)the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
¹⁴ He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
    and is brought to ^(BJ)the king of terrors.
¹⁵ In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
    ^(BK)sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
¹⁶ His ^(BL)roots dry up beneath,
    and his branches ^(BM)wither above.
¹⁷ His ^(BN)memory perishes from the earth,
    and he has no name in the street.
^18 (BO)He is thrust from light into darkness,
    and driven out of the world.
¹⁹ He has no ^(BP)posterity or progeny among his people,
    and no survivor where he used to live.
²⁰ They of the west are appalled at his ^(BQ)day,
    and ^(BR)horror seizes them of the east.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
    such is the place of him who ^(BS)knows not God.”

² “How long will you torment me
    and break me in pieces with words?
³ These ^(BT)ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
    are you not ashamed to wrong me?
⁴ And even if it be true that I have erred,
    my error remains with myself.
⁵ If indeed you ^(BU)magnify yourselves against me
    and make my disgrace an argument against me,
⁶ know then that God has ^(BV)put me in the wrong
    and closed his net about me.
⁷ Behold, I ^(BW)cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
    I call for help, but there is no justice.
⁸ He has ^(BX)walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
    and he has set darkness upon my paths.
⁹ He has ^(BY)stripped from me my glory
    and taken the ^(BZ)crown from my head.
¹⁰ He breaks me down on every side, and I ^(CA)am gone,
    and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
¹¹ He has kindled his wrath against me
    and ^(CB)counts me as his adversary.
¹² His ^(CC)troops come on together;
    they have ^(CD)cast up their siege ramp^[e] against me
    and encamp around my tent.

¹³ “He has put my ^(CE)brothers far from me,
    and ^(CF)those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My relatives ^(CG)have failed me,
    my close ^(CH)friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ The guests ^(CI)in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
    I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
¹⁶ I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
    I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
¹⁷ My breath is strange to my ^(CJ)wife,
    and I am a stench to the children of ^(CK)my own mother.
¹⁸ Even young ^(CL)children despise me;
    when I rise they talk against me.
¹⁹ All my ^(CM)intimate friends abhor me,
    and those whom I loved have turned against me.
²⁰ My ^(CN)bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
    and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
²¹ Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
    for the hand of God has ^(CO)touched me!
²² Why do you, like God, ^(CP)pursue me?
    Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ “Oh that my words were written!
    Oh that they were ^(CQ)inscribed in a book!
²⁴ Oh that with an iron ^(CR)pen and lead
    they were engraved in the rock forever!
²⁵ For I ^(CS)know that my ^(CT)Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the ^(CU)earth.^[f]
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in^[g] my flesh I shall ^(CV)see God,
²⁷ whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not ^(CW)another.
    My heart ^(CX)faints within me!
²⁸ If you say, ‘How we will ^(CY)pursue him!’
    and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’^[h]
29 be afraid of the sword,
    for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
    that you may know there is ^(CZ)a judgment.”

^7 (I)Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where ^(J)shall I flee from your presence?
^8 (K)If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    ^(L)If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall ^(M)lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, ^(N)“Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
^12 (O)even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.

¹³ For you ^(P)formed my inward parts;
    you ^(Q)knitted me together in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.^[a]
(R)Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
^15 (S)My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in ^(T)the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your ^(U)book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your ^(V)thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
^18 (W)If I would count them, they are more than ^(X)the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.

¹⁹ Oh that you would ^(Y)slay the wicked, O God!
    O ^(Z)men of blood, ^(AA)depart from me!
²⁰ They ^(AB)speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies ^(AC)take your name in vain.^[b]
21 (AD)Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not ^(AE)loathe those who ^(AF)rise up against you?
²² I hate them with complete hatred;
    I count them my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    ^(AG)Try me and know my thoughts!^[c]
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and ^(AH)lead me in ^(AI)the way everlasting!^[d]