| Holman Christian Standard Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1Then Job answered: | 1In response, Job said: |
| 2I have heard many things like these. You are all miserable comforters. | 2"I've heard many things like this. What miserable comforters you all are! |
| 3Is there no end to your empty words? What provokes you that you continue testifying? | 3Will windy words like yours never end? What is upsetting you that you keep on arguing? |
| 4If you were in my place I could also talk like you. I could string words together against you and shake my head at you. | 4"I could also talk like you if only you were in my place! Then I would put together an argument against you. I would shake my head at you |
| 5Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation from my lips would bring relief. | 5and encourage you with what I have to say; my words of comfort would lessen your pain. |
| 6Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved, and if I hold back, what have I lost? | 6"But if I speak, my pain isn't assuaged; if I refrain from speaking, what do I have to lose?" |
| 7Surely He has now exhausted me. You have devastated my entire family. | 7"God has certainly worn me out; you devastated my entire world. |
| 8You have shriveled me up--it has become a witness; My frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face. | 8You've arrested me, making me testify against myself! My leanness rises up to attack me, accusing me to my face. |
| 9His anger tears at me, and He harasses me. He gnashes His teeth at me. My enemy pierces me with His eyes. | 9His anger tears me in his persistent resentment against me; he gnashes his teeth at me. My adversary glares at me. |
| 10They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join themselves together against me. | 10People gaped at me with mouths wide open; they slap me in their scorn and gather together against me. |
| 11God hands me over to unjust men; He throws me into the hands of the wicked. | 11God has delivered me over to the ungodly, throwing me into the control of the wicked. |
| 12I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as His target; | 12"He tore me apart when I was at ease; grabbing me by my neck, he shook me to pieces— then he really made me his target. |
| 13His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground. | 13His archers surround me, slashing open my kidneys without pity; he pours out my gall on the ground. |
| 14He breaks through my defenses again and again; He charges at me like a warrior. | 14Attack follows attack as he breaks through my defenses! He runs over me like a mighty warrior. |
| 15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my strength in the dust. | 15"I've even sewn sackcloth directly to my skin; I've buried my strength in the dust. |
| 16My face has grown red with weeping, and darkness covers my eyes, | 16My face is red from my tears, and dark shadows encircle my eyelids, |
| 17although my hands are free from violence and my prayer is pure. | 17even though violence is not my intention, and my prayer is pure." |
| 18Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help find no resting place. | 18"Listen, earth! Don't cover my blood, for my outcry has no place to rest. |
| 19Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is in the heights! | 19Even now, behold! I have a witness in heaven, my Advocate is on high. |
| 20My friends scoff at me as I weep before God. | 20My friends mock me, while my eyes overflow with tears to God, |
| 21I wish that someone might arbitrate between a man and God just as a man pleads for his friend. | 21crying for him to arbitrate between this man and God; as a human being does with his fellow neighbor. |
| 22For only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return. | 22For when only a few years have elapsed, I'll start down a path from which I'll never return." |
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