Job 6:1-30 - Job's Second Speech: A Response To Eliphaz

¹ Then Job answered and said, ² "If only my vexation could be well weighed, and my calamity could be lifted up together [with it] in [the] balances, ³ for then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas; therefore my words have been rash, ⁴ for the arrows of Shaddai [are] in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me. ⁵ Does [the] wild ass bray over grass, or [the] ox bellow over its fodder? ⁶ Can tasteless [food] be eaten without salt, or is there taste in the white of a marshmallow plant? ⁷ {I refused} to touch [them]; they [are] like {food that will make me ill}.

⁸ "{O that} my request may come, and [that] God may grant my hope, ⁹ that God would decide that he would crush me, [that] he would let loose his hand and {kill me}. ¹⁰ But it will still be my consolation, and I would recoil in {unrelenting} pain, for I have not denied [the] words of [the] Holy One.

¹¹ What [is] my strength, that I should wait? And what [is] my end, that {I should hold out}? ¹² Or [is] my strength [like] the strength of stones? Or [is] my flesh bronze? ¹³ {Indeed}, my help is not in me, and [any] success is driven from me.

¹⁴ "Loyal love [should come] for the afflicted [from] his friend, even if he forsakes the fear of Shaddai. ¹⁵ My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed; like a streambed of wadis they flow away, ¹⁶ which are growing dark because of ice upon them, it will pile up snow. ¹⁷ In time they dry up, they disappear; when it [is] hot, they vanish from their place. ¹⁸ The paths of their way wind [around]; they go up into the wasteland, and they perish. ¹⁹ The caravans of Tema looked; the traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them. ²⁰ They are disappointed, because they trusted; they came {here} and they are confounded. ²¹ "For now you have become {such}; you see terrors, and you fear. ²² Is it because I have said, 'Give to me,' or, 'Offer a bribe for me from your wealth'? ²³ or, 'Save me from the foe's hand,' or, 'Ransom me from the tyrants' hand'?

²⁴ Teach me, and I myself will be silent; and make me understand how I have gone astray. ²⁵ How painful are {upright words}! But what does {your reproof} reprove? ²⁶ Do you intend to reprove [my] words and [consider the] words of a desperate [man] as wind? ²⁷ Even over [the] orphan you would cast the lot, and you would bargain over your friend.

²⁸ "{Therefore} be prepared, turn to me, and I surely will not lie to your face. ²⁹ Please turn, let no injustice happen; indeed, turn, {my righteousness is still intact}. ³⁰ Is there injustice on my tongue? Or can my palate not discern calamity?

¹ "Does not {a human being have hard service} on earth? And [are not] his days like the days of a laborer? ² Like a slave he longs for [the] shadow, and like a laborer he waits for his wages. ³ So {I had to inherit} months of worthlessness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. ⁴ When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I rise?' But [the] night is long, and I have my fill of tossing until dawn. ⁵ My body is clothed [with] maggots and clods of dust; my skin hardens, then it gives way [again].

⁶ "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and they come to an end {without hope}. ⁷ Remember that my life [is] a breath; my eye will not return to see good. ⁸ The eye of [the one] seeing me will not see me; your eyes [are] upon me, but {I will be gone}. ⁹ A cloud vanishes, and it goes away, so [he who] goes down to Sheol will not come up. ¹⁰ He does not return again to his house, and his place does not recognize him again.

¹¹ "Even I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in my spirit's anguish; I will complain in my inner self's bitterness. ¹² Am I [the] sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me? ¹³ When I say, 'My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint,' ¹⁴ then you terrify me with dreams, and with visions you terrify me. ¹⁵ So my inner self will choose strangling-- death more than my {existence}. ¹⁶ I loathe [my life]; I would not live forever; depart from me, for my days [are] a breath.

¹⁷ "What [is] a human being that you make him great and that {you fix your mind on him}, ¹⁸ so that you visit him {every morning}, you test him {every moment}? ¹⁹ {How long} will you not turn away from me? [Or] not leave me alone until I swallow my spit? ²⁰ [If] I have sinned, what have I done to you, watcher of humanity? Why have you made me as a target for yourself, so that I have become a burden to myself? ²¹ And why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my guilt? For now I shall lie in the dust, and you will seek me, but {I will be no more}."