| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Then Job answered and said: | 1Then Job spoke again: |
| 2“I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. | 2“I have heard all this before. What miserable comforters you are! |
| 3Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? | 3Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air? What makes you keep on talking? |
| 4I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join 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. |
| 5I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. | 5But if it were me, I would encourage you. I would try to take away your grief. |
| 6“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? | 6Instead, I suffer if I defend myself, and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak. |
| 7Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. | 7“O God, you have ground me down and devastated my family. |
| 8And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it 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. |
| 9He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. | 9God hates me and angrily tears me apart. He snaps his teeth at me and pierces me with his eyes. |
| 10Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. | 10People jeer and laugh at me. They slap my cheek in contempt. A mob gathers against me. |
| 11God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. | 11God has handed me over to sinners. He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked. |
| 12I 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 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 slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. | 13and now his archers surround me. His arrows pierce me without mercy. The ground is wet with my blood. |
| 14He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. | 14Again and again he smashes against me, charging at me like a warrior. |
| 15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. | 15I wear burlap to show my grief. My pride lies in the dust. |
| 16My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, | 16My eyes are red with weeping; dark shadows circle my eyes. |
| 17although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. | 17Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure. |
| 18“O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. | 18“O earth, do not conceal my blood. Let it cry out on my behalf. |
| 19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. | 19Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there on high. |
| 20My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, | 20My friends scorn me, but I pour out my tears to God. |
| 21that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor. | 21I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends. |
| 22For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return. | 22For soon I must go down that road from which I will never return. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | 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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