Job 16:6–17

⁶“Even if I speak, my pain is not less,

and if I don’t speak, it still does not go away.

⁷God, you have surely taken away my strength

and destroyed my whole family.

⁸You have made me thin and weak,

and this shows I have done wrong.

⁹God attacks me and tears me with anger;

he grinds his teeth at me;

my enemy stares at me with his angry eyes.

¹⁰People open their mouths to make fun of me

and hit my cheeks to insult me.

They join together against me.

¹¹God has turned me over to evil people

and has handed me over to the wicked.

¹²Everything was fine with me,

but God broke me into pieces;

he held me by the neck and crushed me.

He has made me his target;

¹³his archers surround me.

He stabs my kidneys without mercy;

he spills my blood on the ground.

¹⁴Again and again God attacks me;

he runs at me like a soldier.

¹⁵“I have sewed rough cloth over my skin to show my sadness

and have buried my face in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red from crying;

I have dark circles around my eyes.

¹⁷Yet my hands have never done anything cruel,

and my prayer is pure.