| New Living Translation | Berean Study Bible |
| 1Then Job spoke again: | 1Then Job answered: |
| 2“I have heard all this before. What miserable comforters you are! | 2“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all. |
| 3Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air? What makes you keep on talking? | 3Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying? |
| 4I could say the same things if you were in my place. I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you. | 4I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you. |
| 5But if it were me, I would encourage you. I would try to take away your grief. | 5But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief. |
| 6Instead, I suffer if I defend myself, and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak. | 6Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away? |
| 7“O God, you have ground me down and devastated my family. | 7Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family. |
| 8As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones. My gaunt flesh testifies against me. | 8You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me. |
| 9God hates me and angrily tears me apart. He snaps his teeth at me and pierces me with his eyes. | 9His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes. |
| 10People jeer and laugh at me. They slap my cheek in contempt. A mob gathers against me. | 10They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me. |
| 11God has handed me over to sinners. He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked. | 11God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked. |
| 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, | 12I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target; |
| 13and now his archers surround me. His arrows pierce me without mercy. The ground is wet with my blood. | 13His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground. |
| 14Again and again he smashes against me, charging at me like a warrior. | 14He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior. |
| 15I wear burlap to show my grief. My pride lies in the dust. | 15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust. |
| 16My eyes are red with weeping; dark shadows circle my eyes. | 16My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes; |
| 17Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure. | 17yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure. |
| 18“O earth, do not conceal my blood. Let it cry out on my behalf. | 18O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest. |
| 19Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there on high. | 19Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high. |
| 20My friends scorn me, but I pour out my tears to God. | 20My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God. |
| 21I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends. | 21Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor! |
| 22For soon I must go down that road from which I will never return. | 22For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return. |
|
    |