Job 6:1-30
6 And Job proceeded to answer and say:
2 “O that my vexation+ were altogether weighed,And that at the same time my adversity they would put on scales themselves!
3 For now it is heavier even than the sands of the seas.That is why my own words have been wild talk.+
4 For the arrows of the Almighty* are with me,+The venom of which my spirit is drinking;+The terrors from God* range themselves up against me.*+
5 Will a zebra*+ cry out over grass,Or a bull low over its fodder?
6 Will tasteless things be eaten without salt,Or is there any taste in the slimy juice of marshmallow?
7 My soul has refused to touch [anything].They are like disease in my food.
8 O that my request would comeAnd that God* would grant even my hope!
9 And that God would go ahead and crush me,That he would release his hand and cut me off!+
10 Even it would still be my comfort;And I should leap [for joy]+ at [my] labor pains,[Though] he would have no compassion, for I have not hidden the sayings+ of the Holy One.+
11 What is my power, that I should keep waiting?+And what is my end, that I should keep prolonging my soul?*
12 Is my power the power of stones?Or is my flesh of copper?
13 Is it that self-assistance is not in me,And effectual working itself has been chased away from me?
14 As regards anyone who withholds loving-kindness* from his own fellow,+He will also leave off even the fear of the Almighty.+
15 My own brothers have dealt treacherously,+ like a winter torrent,Like the channel of winter torrents that keep passing away.
16 They are dark from ice,Upon them snow hides itself.
17 In due season they become waterless,+ they have been silenced;When it grows hot they are dried up from their place.+
18 The paths of their way are turned aside;They go up into the empty place and perish.
19 The caravans of Teʹma+ have looked,The traveling company of Sa·beʹans*+ have waited for them.
20 They certainly are ashamed because they had trusted;They have come clear to the place and they get disappointed.+
21 For now YOU men have amounted to nothing;+YOU see terror, and YOU become afraid.+
22 Is it because I have said, ‘GIVE me [something],Or from some of the power of YOU men make a present in my behalf;
23 And rescue me out of the hand of an adversary,+And out of the hand of tyrants YOU men should redeem me’?+
24 Instruct me, and I, for my part, shall be silent;+And what mistake I have committed make me understand.+
25 The sayings of uprightness have been—O not painful!+But what does reproving* on the part of YOU men reprove?+
26 Is it to reprove words that YOU men scheme,When the sayings of one in despair+ are for mere wind?+
27 How much more will YOU cast lots even over someone fatherless,+And barter over YOUR companion!+
28 And now GO ahead, pay attention to me,[And see] whether I shall lie+ to YOUR very faces.
29 Return, please—let no unrighteousness arise—Yes, return—my righteousness is yet in it.+
30 Is there unrighteousness on my tongue,Or does my own palate not discern adversity?
Footnotes
^ “Jehovah,” LXXVg.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElohʹah.
^ “Cast me out from social intercourse,” by the transposition of two letters in M.
^ Or, “onager; wild ass.”
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElohʹah.
^ Or, “my life [as a soul].” Heb., naph·shiʹ; Gr., psy·kheʹ.
^ Or, “loyal love.”
^ Lit., “Sheba.”
^ “Reproving.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal.
