Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

1Then Job answered:

2I have heard many things like these.

You are all miserable comforters.a

3Is there no end to your emptya a words?

What provokes you that you continue testifying?

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.

5Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,

and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.a

6If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,

and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?

7Surely heA has now exhausted me.

You have devastated my entire family.

8You have shriveled me upA — it has become a witness;

my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.

9His anger tears at me, and he harassesa me.

He gnashes his teeth at me.

My enemy pierces me with his eyes.

10They open their mouths against me

and strike my cheeks with contempt;a

they join themselves together against me.

11God hands me over to the unjust;A

he throws me to 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;a

13his archersA surround me.

He pierces my kidneys without mercy

and pours my bile on the ground.

14He breaks through my defenses again and again;A

he charges at me like a warrior.a

15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;

I have buried my strengthA in the dust.a

16My face has grown red with weeping,

and darknessa covers my eyes,

17although my hands are free from violencea

and my prayer is pure.

18Earth, do not cover my blood;

may my cry for help find no resting place.a

19Even now my witness is in heaven,

and my advocate is in the heights!a

20My friends scoff at me

as I weep before God.

21I wish that someone might argue for a man with Goda

just as anyoneA would for a friend.

22For only a few years will pass

before I go the way of no return.