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

¹ Then Job responded: ² "Oh, if only my grief could be weighed, and my misfortune laid on the scales too! ³ But because it is heavier than the sand of the sea, that is why my words have been wild. ⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; my spirit drinks their poison; God's sudden terrors are arrayed against me. ⁵ "Does the wild donkey bray when it is near grass? Or does the ox low near its fodder? ⁶ Can food that is tasteless be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? ⁷ I have refused to touch such things; they are like loathsome food to me.

⁸ "Oh that my request would be realized, and that God would grant me what I long for! ⁹ And that God would be willing to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and kill me. ¹⁰ Then I would yet have my comfort, then I would rejoice, in spite of pitiless pain, for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.

¹¹ What is my strength, that I should wait? and what is my end, that I should prolong my life? ¹² Is my strength like that of stones? or is my flesh made of bronze? ¹³ Is not my power to help myself nothing, and has not every resource been driven from me?

¹⁴ "To the one in despair, kindness should come from his friend even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. ¹⁵ My brothers have been as treacherous as a seasonal stream, and as the riverbeds of the intermittent streams that flow away. ¹⁶ They are dark because of ice; snow is piled up over them. ¹⁷ When they are scorched, they dry up, when it is hot, they vanish from their place. ¹⁸ Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish. ¹⁹ The caravans of Tema looked intently for these streams; the traveling merchants of Sheba hoped for them. ²⁰ They were distressed, because each one had been so confident; they arrived there, but were disappointed. ²¹ For now you have become like these streams that are no help; you see a terror, and are afraid. ²² "Have I ever said, 'Give me something, and from your fortune make gifts in my favor'? ²³ Or 'Deliver me from the enemy's power, and from the hand of tyrants ransom me'?

²⁴ "Teach me and I, for my part, will be silent; explain to me how I have been mistaken. ²⁵ How painful are honest words! But what does your reproof prove? ²⁶ Do you intend to criticize mere words, and treat the words of a despairing man as wind? ²⁷ Yes, you would gamble for the fatherless, and auction off your friend.

²⁸ "Now then, be good enough to look at me; and I will not lie to your face! ²⁹ Relent, let there be no falsehood; reconsider, for my righteousness is intact! ³⁰ Is there any falsehood on my lips? Can my mouth not discern evil things?

¹ "Does not humanity have hard service on earth? Are not their days also like the days of a hired man? ² Like a servant longing for the evening shadow, and like a hired man looking for his wages, ³ thus I have been made to inherit months of futility, and nights of sorrow have been appointed to me. ⁴ If I lie down, I say, 'When will I arise?', and the night stretches on and I toss and turn restlessly until the day dawns. ⁵ My body is clothed with worms and dirty scabs; my skin is broken and festering.

⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and they come to an end without hope. ⁷ Remember that my life is but a breath, that my eyes will never again see happiness. ⁸ The eye of him who sees me now will see me no more; your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone. ⁹ As a cloud is dispersed and then disappears, so the one who goes down to the grave does not come up again. ¹⁰ He returns no more to his house, nor does his place of residence know him any more.

¹¹ "Therefore, I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. ¹² Am I the sea, or the creature of the deep, that you must put me under guard? ¹³ If I say, "My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint," ¹⁴ then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, ¹⁵ so that I would prefer strangling, and death more than life. ¹⁶ I loathe it; I do not want to live forever; leave me alone, for my days are a vapor!

¹⁷ "What is mankind that you make so much of them, and that you pay attention to them? ¹⁸ And that you visit them every morning, and try them every moment? ¹⁹ Will you never look away from me, will you not let me alone long enough to swallow my spittle? ²⁰ If I have sinned -- what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you set me as your target? Have I become a burden to you? ²¹ And why do you not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, and you will seek me diligently, but I will be gone."