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Job Says Friends Are Miserable Comforters

¹ Then Job responded,

² "I have heard many things like these;
^(F1)(C1)Miserable comforters are you all!

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

⁴ "I too could speak like you,
If only ^(F1)I were in your place.
I could compose words against you
And ^(C1)shake my head at you.

⁵ "Or I could strengthen you with my mouth,
And the condolence of my lips could lessen your pain.

Job Says God Shattered Him

⁶ "If I speak, ^(C1)my pain is not lessened,
And if I refrain, what pain leaves me?

⁷ "But now He has ^(C1)exhausted me;
You have laid ^(C2)waste all my group of loved ones.

⁸ "And You have shriveled me up,
^(F1)(C1)It has become a witness;
And my ^(C2)infirmity rises up against me,
It testifies 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)enemy ^(F2)glares at me.

¹⁰ "They have ^(C1)gaped at me with their mouths,
They have ^(F1)(C2)slapped me on the cheek with contempt;
They have ^(C3)massed themselves against me.

¹¹ "God hands me over to criminals,
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 my neck and shaken me to pieces;
He has also set me up as His ^(C2)target.

¹³ "His ^(C1)arrows surround me.
He splits my kidneys open without mercy;
He pours out ^(C2)my bile 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 deep darkness is on my eyelids,

¹⁷ Although there is no ^(C1)violence in my hands,
And ^(C2)my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ "Earth, do not cover my blood,
And may 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 weeps to God,

²¹ That one might plead for a man with God
As a son of man with his neighbor!

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