Job’s Friends Are No Help

1 Then Job 1answered,

2 “aOh that my grief were actually weighed

And laid in the balances together with my calamity!

3 “For then it would be aheavier than the sand of the seas;

Therefore my words have been rash.

4 “For the aarrows of the Almighty are within me,

1Their bpoison my spirit drinks;

The cterrors of God are arrayed against me.

5 “Does the awild donkey bray over his grass,

Or does the ox low over his fodder?

6 “Can something tasteless be eaten without salt,

Or is there any taste in the 1white of an egg?

7 “My soul arefuses to touch them;

They are like loathsome food to me.

8 “Oh that my request might come to pass,

And that God would grant my longing!

9 “Would that God were awilling to crush me,

That He would loose His hand and cut me off!

10 “But it is still my consolation,

And I rejoice in unsparing pain,

That I ahave not 1denied the words of the Holy One.

11 “What is my strength, that I should wait?

And what is my end, that I should 1aendure?

12 “Is my strength the strength of stones,

Or is my flesh bronze?

13 “Is it that my ahelp is not within me,

And that 1bdeliverance is driven from me?