Daily Bible Reading

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

1Then Job answered and said:

2“I have heard many such things;

miserable comforters are you all.

3Shall windy words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

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.

5I could strengthen you with my mouth,

and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

6“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,

and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

7Surely now God has worn me out;

he has made desolate all my company.

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.

9He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;

he has gnashed his teeth at me;

my adversary sharpens his eyes 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 gives me up to the ungodly

and casts 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;

13his archers surround me.

He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;

he pours out my gall on the ground.

14He breaks me with breach upon breach;

he runs upon me like a warrior.

15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin

and have laid my strength in the dust.

16My face is red with weeping,

and on my eyelids is deep darkness,

17although there is no violence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

18“O earth, cover not my blood,

and let my cry find no resting place.

19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

and he who testifies for me is on high.

20My friends scorn me;

my eye pours out tears to God,

21that he would argue the case of a man with God,

as a son of man does with his neighbor.

22For when a few years have come

I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

Job

1Then Job replied:

2“I have heard many things like these;

you are miserable comforters, all of you!

3Will your long-winded speeches never end?

What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4I also could speak like you,

if you were in my place;

I could make fine speeches against you

and shake my head at you.

5But 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.

7Surely, God, you have worn me out;

you have devastated my entire household.

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

my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

9God assails me and tears me in his anger

and gnashes his teeth at me;

my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

10People open their mouths to jeer at me;

they strike my cheek in scorn

and unite together against me.

11God has turned me over to the ungodly

and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

12All was well with me, but he shattered me;

he seized me by the neck and crushed me.

He has made me his target;

13his archers surround me.

Without pity, he pierces my kidneys

and spills my gall on the ground.

14Again 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.

16My face is red with weeping,

dark shadows ring my eyes;

17yet my hands have been free of violence

and my prayer is pure.

18“Earth, do not cover my blood;

may my cry never be laid to rest!

19Even now my witness is in heaven;

my advocate is on high.

20My intercessor is my friend

as my eyes pour out tears to God;

21on behalf of a man he pleads with God

as one pleads for a friend.

22“Only a few years will pass

before I take the path of no return.