Job's friends make him very sad
1Job answered his friends. He said:
2‘I have heard a lot of people
say things like this.
You try to comfort me,
but you make me very sad.
3Why don't you stop saying
things that are worthless?
Why do you keep on speaking?
4If the same things that have happened to me
should happen to you,
then I could have said
the same things that you have said.
I could have said bad things about you
and I could have shaken my head at you.
5I could have comforted you
and told you that I felt sorry for you.
6But if I speak, my pain does not go away,
and if I stop speaking, my pain will not stop.’
Job says God is breaking him
7‘O God, You have taken away my strength,
and You have killed everyone in my family.
8You have made me weak and thin,
and that shows that You think I am guilty.
The people say I have done wrong
and that is why I am so weak and thin.
9God is angry with me, He hates me,
He bites hard on his teeth at me,
and He looks at me like an enemy
who wants to attack me.
10People have said
what they want to say about me.
They have mocked me and hit me,
and they are all against me.
11God has given me to people
who are living wrongly.
He lets bad people do
what they want to do to me.
12All was going well with me,
but then God broke me into pieces.
He grabbed me by my neck,
He threw me onto the ground
and He shot his arrows at me.
13His army shoots arrows at me.
He cuts open my kidneys
and He does not stop.
He pours my gall out onto the ground.
14He attacks me and breaks me
like enemies break down
a wall of a city.
They break it down
one piece after another piece.
15I have put on sack-cloth.
I don't have any strength left.
16I have cried a lot, so that my eyes are red,
and it is dark around my eyes.
17But I did not hurt people
and I was always honest when I prayed.’
Job has a Witness in heaven
18‘Earth, do not cover my blood
that has flowed onto the ground.
I will not stop shouting
and asking God for help.
19Yes, I have lots of trouble,
but I have a Witness in heaven,
Someone who will witness for me.
He is in heaven above.
20My friends say bad things to me
and they mock me.
My eyes are full of tears,
but I pray to God.
21I ask God to help me, a human.
He must help me like a man helps his friend,
22because my life is almost over.
I will die and never come back again.’
