| Holman Christian Standard Bible | English Standard Version |
| 1Then Job answered: | 1Then Job answered and said: |
| 2I have heard many things like these. You are all miserable comforters. | 2“I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. |
| 3Is there no end to your empty words? What provokes you that you continue testifying? | 3Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? |
| 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 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. |
| 5Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation from my lips would bring relief. | 5I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. |
| 6Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved, and if I hold back, what have I lost? | 6“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? |
| 7Surely He has now exhausted me. You have devastated my entire family. | 7Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. |
| 8You have shriveled me up--it has become a witness; My frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face. | 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. |
| 9His anger tears at me, and He harasses me. He gnashes His teeth at me. My enemy pierces me with His eyes. | 9He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. |
| 10They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join themselves together against me. | 10Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. |
| 11God hands me over to unjust men; He throws me into the hands of the wicked. | 11God gives me up to the ungodly and casts 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; | 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; |
| 13His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground. | 13his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. |
| 14He breaks through my defenses again and again; He charges at me like a warrior. | 14He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. |
| 15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my strength in the dust. | 15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. |
| 16My face has grown red with weeping, and darkness covers my eyes, | 16My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, |
| 17although my hands are free from violence and my prayer is pure. | 17although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. |
| 18Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help find no resting place. | 18“O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. |
| 19Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is in the heights! | 19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. |
| 20My friends scoff at me as I weep before God. | 20My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, |
| 21I wish that someone might arbitrate between a man and God just as a man pleads for his friend. | 21that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor. |
| 22For only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return. | 22For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return. |
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