2 “I have heard many such things;

you are all miserable comforters.

3 Will useless words ever have an end?

What is wrong with you that you answer like this?

4 I also could speak as you do,

if you were in my place;

I could collect and join words together against you

and shake my head at you in mockery.

5 I would strengthen you with my mouth,

and the quivering of my lips will bring you relief!

6 If I speak, my grief is not lessened;

if I keep from speaking, how am I helped?

7 But now, God, you have made me weary;

you have made all my family desolate.

8 You have made me dry up, which itself is a witness against me;

the leanness of my body rises up against me,

and it testifies against my face.

9 God has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me;

He grinds his teeth in rage;

my enemy fastens his eyes on me as he tears me apart.

10 People have gaped with open mouth at me;

they have hit me reproachfully on the cheek;

they have gathered together against me.

11 God hands me over to ungodly people,

and throws me into the hands of wicked people.

12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart.

Indeed, he has taken me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

he has also set me up as his target.

13 His archers surround me all around;

God pierces my kidneys and does not spare me;

he pours out my bile on the ground.

14 He smashes through my wall again and again;

he runs upon me like a warrior.

15 I have sewn sackcloth on my skin;

I have thrust my horn into the ground.

16 My face is red with weeping;

on my eyelids is the shadow of death

17 although there is no violence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

18 Earth, do not cover up my blood;

let my cry have no resting place.

19 Even now, see, my witness is in heaven;

he who vouches for me is on high.

20 My friends scoff at me,

but my eye pours out tears to God.

21 I ask for that witness in heaven to argue for this man with God

as a man does with his neighbor!

22 For when a few years have passed,

I will go to a place from where I will not return.