1Job answered:
2"If my misery could be weighed, if you could pile the whole bitter load on the scales,
3It would be heavier than all the sand of the sea! Is it any wonder that I'm screaming like a caged cat?
4The arrows of God Almighty are in me, poison arrows—and I'm poisoned all through! God has dumped the whole works on me.
5Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture— so don't expect me to keep quiet in this.
6Do you see what God has dished out for me? It's enough to turn anyone's stomach!
7Everything in me is repulsed by it— it makes me sick.
8"All I want is an answer to one prayer, a last request to be honored:
9Let God step on me—squash me like a bug, and be done with me for good.
10I'd at least have the satisfaction of not having blasphemed the Holy God, before being pressed past the limits.
11Where's the strength to keep my hopes up? What future do I have to keep me going?
12Do you think I have nerves of steel? Do you think I'm made of iron?
13Do you think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps? Why, I don't even have any boots!
14"When desperate people give up on God Almighty, their friends, at least, should stick with them.
15But my brothers are fickle as a gulch in the desert— one day they're gushing with water
16From melting ice and snow cascading out of the mountains,
17But by midsummer they're dry, gullies baked dry in the sun.
18Travelers who spot them and go out of their way for a drink, end up in a waterless gulch and die of thirst.
19Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water, tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink.
20They arrive so confident—but what a disappointment! They get there, and their faces fall!
21And you, my so-called friends, are no better— there's nothing to you! One look at a hard scene and you shrink in fear.
22It's not as though I asked you for anything— I didn't ask you for one red cent—
23Nor did I beg you to go out on a limb for me. So why all this dodging and shuffling?
24"Confront me with the truth and I'll shut up, show me where I've gone off the track.
25Honest words never hurt anyone, but what's the point of all this pious bluster?
26You pretend to tell me what's wrong with my life, but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air.
27Are people mere things to you? Are friends just items of profit and loss?
28"Look me in the eyes! Do you think I'd lie to your face?
29Think it over—no double-talk! Think carefully—my integrity is on the line!
30Can you detect anything false in what I say? Don't you trust me to discern good from evil?