| Christian Standard Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1Then Job answered: | 1Then Job spoke again: |
| 2I have heard many things like these. You are all miserable comforters. | 2“I have heard all this before. What miserable comforters you are! |
| 3Is there no end to your empty words? What provokes you that you continue testifying? | 3Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air? What makes you keep on talking? |
| 4If you were in my place I could also talk like you. I could string words together against you and shake my head at you. | 4I could say the same things if you were in my place. I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you. |
| 5Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation from my lips would bring relief. | 5But if it were me, I would encourage you. I would try to take away your grief. |
| 6If I speak, my suffering is not relieved, and if I hold back, does any of it leave me? | 6Instead, I suffer if I defend myself, and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak. |
| 7Surely he has now exhausted me. You have devastated my entire family. | 7“O God, you have ground me down and devastated my family. |
| 8You have shriveled me up--it has become a witness; my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face. | 8As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones. My gaunt flesh testifies against me. |
| 9His anger tears at me, and he harasses me. He gnashes his teeth at me. My enemy pierces me with his eyes. | 9God hates me and angrily tears me apart. He snaps his teeth at me and pierces me with his eyes. |
| 10They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join themselves together against me. | 10People jeer and laugh at me. They slap my cheek in contempt. A mob gathers against me. |
| 11God hands me over to the unjust; he throws me to the wicked. | 11God has handed me over to sinners. He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked. |
| 12I was at ease, but he shattered me; he seized me by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target; | 12“I was living quietly until he shattered me. He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces. Then he set me up as his target, |
| 13his archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground. | 13and now his archers surround me. His arrows pierce me without mercy. The ground is wet with my blood. |
| 14He breaks through my defenses again and again; he charges at me like a warrior. | 14Again and again he smashes against me, charging at me like a warrior. |
| 15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my strength in the dust. | 15I wear burlap to show my grief. My pride lies in the dust. |
| 16My face has grown red with weeping, and darkness covers my eyes, | 16My eyes are red with weeping; dark shadows circle my eyes. |
| 17although my hands are free from violence and my prayer is pure. | 17Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure. |
| 18Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help find no resting place. | 18“O earth, do not conceal my blood. Let it cry out on my behalf. |
| 19Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is in the heights! | 19Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there on high. |
| 20My friends scoff at me as I weep before God. | 20My friends scorn me, but I pour out my tears to God. |
| 21I wish that someone might argue for a man with God just as anyone would for a friend. | 21I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends. |
| 22For only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return. | 22For soon I must go down that road from which I will never return. |
| The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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