1. Job said:
2. I have often heard this,and it offers no comfort.
3. So why don't you keep quiet?What's bothering you?
4. If I were in your place,it would be easy to criticizeor to give advice.
5. But I would offer hopeand comfort instead.
6. If I speak, or if I don't,I suffer all the same.My torment continues.
7. God has worn me downand destroyed my family;
8. my shrivelled up skin provesthat I am his prisoner.
9. God is my hateful enemy,glaring at me and attackingwith his sharp teeth.
10. Everyone is against me;they sneer and slap my face.
11. And God is the onewho handed me overto this merciless mob.
12. Everything was going well,until God grabbed my neckand shook me to pieces.God set me up as the target
13. for his arrows,and without showing mercy,he slashed my stomach open,spilling out my insides.
14. God never stops attacking,
15. and so, in my sorrowI dress in sackclothand sit in the dust.
16. My face is red with tears,and dark shadowscircle my eyes,
17. though I am not violent,and my prayers are sincere.
18. If I should die,I beg the earth not to covermy cry for justice.
19. Even now, God in heavenis both my witnessand my protector.
20. My friends have rejected me,but God is the one I beg
21. to show that I am right,just as a friend should.
22. Because in only a few years,I will be dead and gone.