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Troublesome Comforters

¹ Then Job answered and said,

² "I have heard many such things;
^(F1)(C1)Troublesome comforters are you all.

³ "Is there no end to ^(C1)windy words?
Or what pains you that you answer?

⁴ "I too could speak like you,
If your soul were in the place of my soul.
I could compose words against you
And ^(C1)shake my head at you.

⁵ "I could encourage you with my mouth,
And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.

⁶ "If I speak, ^(C1)my pain is not lessened,
And if I cease, what will go forth from me?

⁷ "But now He has ^(C1)exhausted me;
You have made ^(C2)desolate all my company.

⁸ "You have shriveled me up,
^(C1)It has become a witness;
And my ^(C2)leanness rises up against me,
It answers to my face.

⁹ "His anger has ^(C1)torn me and ^(F1)hunted me down;
He has ^(C2)gnashed at me with His teeth;
My ^(C3)adversary sharpens his eyes to look at me.

¹⁰ "They have ^(C1)opened their mouth wide at me;
They have ^(C2)struck me on the cheek in reproach;
They have ^(C3)massed themselves against me.

¹¹ "God hands me over to ruffians
And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.

¹² "I was at ease, but ^(C1)He shattered me,
And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;
He has also set me up as His ^(C2)target.

¹³ "His ^(C1)arrows surround me.
Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;
He pours out ^(C2)my gall on the ground.

¹⁴ "He ^(C1)breaks through me with breach after breach;
He ^(C2)runs at me like a warrior.

¹⁵ "I have sewed ^(C1)sackcloth over my skin
And ^(C2)thrust my horn in the dust.

¹⁶ "My face is flushed from ^(C1)weeping,
^(C2)And the shadow of death is on my eyelids,

¹⁷ Why?—because there is no ^(C1)violence in my hands,
And ^(C2)my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ "O earth, do not cover my blood,
And let there be no resting place for my cry.

¹⁹ "Even now, behold, ^(C1)my witness is in heaven,
And my ^(F1)advocate is ^(C2)on high.

²⁰ "My friends are my scoffers;
^(C1)My eye ^(F1)weeps to God.

²¹ "O that a man might argue with God
As a man with his neighbor!

²² "For when a few years are past,
I shall go the way ^(C1)of no return.