Read the Bible

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 criticize
    or to give advice.
⁵ But I would offer hope
    and comfort instead.

⁶ If I speak, or if I don't,
I hurt all the same.
    My torment continues.
⁷ God has worn me down
    and destroyed my family;
⁸ my shriveled up skin proves
    that I am his prisoner.
⁹ God is my hateful enemy,
glaring at me
and attacking
    with his sharp teeth.
¹⁰ Everyone is against me;
    they sneer and slap my face.
¹¹ And God is the one
who handed me over
    to this merciless mob.

¹² Everything was going well,
until God grabbed my neck
    and 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 sorrow
I dress in sackcloth^[a]
    and sit in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red with tears,
and dark shadows
    circle my eyes,
¹⁷ though I am not violent,
    and my prayers are sincere.

¹⁸ If I should die,
I beg the earth
not to cover
    my cry for justice.
¹⁹ Even now, God in heaven
is both my witness
    and my protector.
²⁰ My friends have rejected me,
    but God is the one I beg^[b]
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.