2  “I have heard ^emany such things;

^fmiserable comforters are you all.

3  Shall ^gwindy words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

4  I also could speak as you do,

if you were in my place;

I could join words together against you

and ^hshake my head at you.

5  I could strengthen you with my mouth,

and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

6  “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,

and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

7  Surely now God has worn me out;

ⁱhe has¹ made desolate all my company.

8  And he has shriveled me up,

which is ^ja witness against me,

and my ^kleanness has risen up against me;

it testifies to my face.

9  He has ^ltorn me in his wrath ^mand hated me;

he has ⁿgnashed his teeth at me;

my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

10  Men have ^ogaped at me with their mouth;

they have ^pstruck me insolently on the cheek;

they ^qmass themselves together against me.

11  God gives me up to the ungodly

and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

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

he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

he set me up as his ^rtarget;

13  his ^sarchers surround me.

He slashes open my kidneys ^tand does not spare;

he ^upours out my gall on the ground.

14  He breaks me with ^vbreach upon breach;

he ^wruns upon me like a warrior.

15  I have sewed ^xsackcloth upon my skin

and have laid ^ymy strength ^zin the dust.

16  My face is red with weeping,

and on my eyelids is ^adeep darkness,

17  although there is no ^bviolence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

18  “O earth, ^ccover not my blood,

and let my ^dcry find no resting place.

19  Even now, behold, my ^ewitness is in heaven,

and he who testifies for me is ^fon high.

20  My friends ^gscorn me;

my eye pours out tears to God,

21  that he would ^hargue the case of a man with God,

as² a son of man does with his neighbor.

22  For when a few years have come

I shall go the way ⁱfrom which I shall not return.

17  “My spirit is broken; my days are ^jextinct;

^kthe graveyard is ready for me.

2  Surely there are mockers about me,

and my eye dwells on their ^lprovocation.

3  “Lay down a pledge for me with you;

who is there who will put up ^msecurity for me?

4  Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,

therefore you will not let them triumph.

5  He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—

the ⁿeyes of his children will fail.

6  “He has made me ^oa byword of the peoples,

and I am one before whom men spit.

7  My ^peye has grown dim from vexation,

and all my members are like ^qa shadow.

8  The upright are ^rappalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

9  Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and he who has ^sclean hands grows stronger and stronger.

10  But you, ^tcome on again, all of you,

and I shall not find a wise man among you.

11  My ^udays are past; my plans are broken off,

the desires of my heart.

12  They ^vmake night into day:

‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’¹

13  If I hope for ^wSheol as ^xmy house,

if I make my bed in darkness,

14  if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

15  where then is my hope?

Who will see my hope?

16  Will it go down to the bars of ^wSheol?

Shall we ^ydescend together ^zinto the dust?”²

2  “How long will you ^bhunt for words?

Consider, and then we will speak.

3  Why are we counted as ^ccattle?

Why are we stupid in your sight?

4  You who ^dtear yourself in your anger,

shall the earth be forsaken for you,

or ^ethe rock be removed out of its place?

5  “Indeed, ^fthe light of the wicked is put out,

and the flame of his fire does not shine.

6  The light is ^gdark in his tent,

and his lamp above him is put out.

7  His strong steps are shortened,

and his ^hown schemes throw him down.

8  For he is cast into a net by his own feet,

and he walks on its mesh.

9  ⁱA trap seizes him by the heel;

a snare lays hold of him.

10  A rope is hidden for him in the ground,

a trap for him in the path.

11  ^jTerrors frighten him on every side,

and chase him at his heels.

12  His strength is famished,

and calamity is ^kready for his stumbling.

13  It consumes the parts of his skin;

^lthe firstborn of death consumes his limbs.

14  He is torn from the tent in which he trusted

and is brought to ^mthe king of terrors.

15  In his tent dwells that which is none of his;

ⁿsulfur is scattered over his habitation.

16  His ^oroots dry up beneath,

and his branches ^pwither above.

17  His ^qmemory perishes from the earth,

and he has no name in the street.

18  ^rHe is thrust from light into darkness,

and driven out of the world.

19  He has no ^sposterity or progeny among his people,

and no survivor where he used to live.

20  They of the west are appalled at his ^tday,

and ^uhorror seizes them of the east.

21  Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,

such is the place of him who ^vknows not God.”

2  “How long will you torment me

and break me in pieces with words?

3  These ^wten times you have cast reproach upon me;

are you not ashamed to wrong me?

4  And even if it be true that I have erred,

my error remains with myself.

5  If indeed you ^xmagnify yourselves against me

and make my disgrace an argument against me,

6  know then that God has ^yput me in the wrong

and closed his net about me.

7  Behold, I ^zcry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;

I call for help, but there is no justice.

8  He has ^awalled up my way, so that I cannot pass,

and he has set darkness upon my paths.

9  He has ^bstripped from me my glory

and taken the ^ccrown from my head.

10  He breaks me down on every side, and I ^dam gone,

and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

11  He has kindled his wrath against me

and ^ecounts me as his adversary.

12  His ^ftroops come on together;

they have ^gcast up their siege ramp¹ against me

and encamp around my tent.

13  “He has put my ^hbrothers far from me,

and ⁱthose who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

14  My relatives ^jhave failed me,

my close ^kfriends have forgotten me.

15  The guests ^lin my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

16  I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;

I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.

17  My breath is strange to my ^mwife,

and I am a stench to the children of ⁿmy own mother.

18  Even young ^ochildren despise me;

when I rise they talk against me.

19  All my ^pintimate friends abhor me,

and those whom I loved have turned against me.

20  My ^qbones stick to my skin and to my flesh,

and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21  Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,

for the hand of God has ^rtouched me!

22  Why do you, like God, ^spursue me?

Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

23  “Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were ^tinscribed in a book!

24  Oh that with an iron ^upen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever!

25  For I ^vknow that my ^wRedeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the ^xearth.²

26  And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in³ my flesh I shall ^ysee God,

27  whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not ^zanother.

My heart ^afaints within me!

28  If you say, ‘How we will ^spursue him!’

and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’⁴

29  be afraid of the sword,

for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

that you may know there is ^ba judgment.”

2  “Therefore my ^dthoughts answer me,

because of my haste within me.

3  I hear censure that insults me,

and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

4  Do you not know this from of old,

^esince man was placed on earth,

5  ^fthat the exulting of the wicked is short,

and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

6  ^gThough his height mount up to the heavens,

and his head reach to the clouds,

7  he will perish forever like his own ^hdung;

those who have seen him will say, ⁱ‘Where is he?’

8  He will fly away like ^ja dream and not be found;

he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

9  ^kThe eye that saw him will see him no more,

nor will his place any more behold him.

10  His children will seek the favor of the poor,

and his hands will ^lgive back his wealth.

11  His bones are full of his ^myouthful vigor,

but it will lie ⁿdown with him in the dust.

12  “Though evil is sweet in his mouth,

though he hides it ^ounder his tongue,

13  though he is loath to let it go

and holds it in his mouth,

14  yet his food is turned in his stomach;

it is the venom of ^pcobras within him.

15  He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;

God casts them out of his belly.

16  He will suck the poison of cobras;

^qthe tongue of a viper will kill him.

17  He will not look upon ^rthe rivers,

the streams flowing with ^shoney and ^tcurds.

18  He will ^ugive back the fruit of his toil

and will not ^vswallow it down;

from the profit of his trading

he will get no enjoyment.

19  For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;

he has seized a house that he did not build.

20  “Because he ^wknew no ^xcontentment in his belly,

^yhe will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

21  There was nothing left after he had eaten;

therefore his prosperity will not endure.

22  In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;

the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

23  To fill his belly to the full,

God¹ will send his burning anger against him

and rain it upon him ^zinto his body.

24  ^aHe will flee from an iron weapon;

^ba bronze arrow will strike ^chim through.

25  It ^dis drawn forth and comes out of his body;

^ethe glittering point comes out of his ^fgallbladder;

^gterrors come upon him.

26  Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;

^ha fire not fanned will devour him;

what is left in his tent will be consumed.

27  ⁱThe heavens will reveal his iniquity,

and the earth will rise up against him.

28  The possessions of his house will be carried away,

dragged off in the day of God’s² wrath.

29  ^jThis is the wicked man’s portion from God,

^jthe heritage decreed for him by God.”