Honest To God

¹ Then Job replied:

² "I have heard many things like these;
miserable comforters are you all!

³ Will your long-winded speeches never end?
What ails you that you keep on arguing?

⁴ I also could speak like you,
if you were in my place;
I could make fine speeches against you
and shake my head at you.

⁵ But my mouth would encourage you;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

⁶ "Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I refrain, it does not go away.

⁷ Surely, O God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.

⁸ You have bound me—and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

⁹ God assails me and tears me in his anger
and gnashes his teeth at me;
my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

¹⁰ Men open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.

¹¹ God has turned me over to evil men
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

¹² All was well with me, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;

¹³ his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.

¹⁴ Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.

¹⁵ "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
and buried my brow in the dust.

¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
deep shadows ring my eyes;

¹⁷ yet my hands have been free of violence
and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ "O earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!

¹⁹ Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.

²⁰ My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;

²¹ on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as a man pleads for his friend.

²² "Only a few years will pass
before I go on the journey of no return.

¹ My spirit is broken,
my days are cut short,
the grave awaits me.

² Surely mockers surround me;
my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

³ "Give me, O God, the pledge you demand.
Who else will put up security for me?

⁴ You have closed their minds to understanding;
therefore you will not let them triumph.

⁵ If a man denounces his friends for reward,
the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ "God has made me a byword to everyone,
a man in whose face people spit.

⁷ My eyes have grown dim with grief;
my whole frame is but a shadow.

⁸ Upright men are appalled at this;
the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.

⁹ Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways,
and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

¹⁰ "But come on, all of you, try again!
I will not find a wise man among you.

¹¹ My days have passed, my plans are shattered,
and so are the desires of my heart.

¹² These men turn night into day;
in the face of darkness they say, 'Light is near.'

¹³ If the only home I hope for is the grave,
if I spread out my bed in darkness,

¹⁴ if I say to corruption, 'You are my father,'
and to the worm, 'My mother' or 'My sister,'

¹⁵ where then is my hope?
Who can see any hope for me?

¹⁶ Will it go down to the gates of death
Will we descend together into the dust?"

New International Version