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

¹ JOB ANSWERED: ² If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! ³ It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas, no wonder my words have been impetuous. ⁴ The Almighty's arrows are in me. My spirit drinks in their poison. God's terrors set themselves against me. ⁵ Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder? ⁶ Is tasteless food eaten without salt? Is there flavor in the white root of the marshmallow plant (or the white of an egg)? ⁷ I refuse to touch it! This repugnant food makes me ill.

⁸ Oh, that I might have my request and that God would grant what I long for. ⁹ Oh that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut me off! ¹⁰ Then I would still have this consolation, my joy in unrelenting pain, that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹ What strength do I have, that I should wait and hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? ¹² Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh made of bronze? ¹³ Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?

¹⁴ A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes his reverence for the Almighty. ¹⁵ But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow ¹⁶ when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, ¹⁷ but that cease to flow in the dry season, and in the heat vanishes from their channels. ¹⁸ Caravans turn aside from their routes. They go into the wasteland and perish. ¹⁹ The caravans of Tema look for water. The traveling merchants of Sheba hope and wait in vain. ²⁰ They are distressed! They were once confident. They arrive there, only to be disappointed. ²¹ Now you too have proved to be of no help. You see something dreadful and are afraid. ²² Have I ever said: Give something on my behalf; pay a ransom for me from your wealth, ²³ deliver me from the hand of the enemy, ransom me from the clutches of the ruthless'?

²⁴ Teach me, and I will be quiet. Show me where I have been wrong. ²⁵ Honest words are so painful! But what do your arguments prove? ²⁶ Do you mean to correct what I say? Do you treat the words of a despairing man as wind? ²⁷ You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.

²⁸ But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face? ²⁹ Relent and do not be unjust. Reconsider, for my integrity is at stake. ³⁰ Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern destructive malice?

¹ Is this not the struggle of all humanity? A person's life is long and hard like that of a hired hand. ² It is like a worker who longs for the day to end, like a servant waiting to be paid. ³ I am allotted months of futility, long and weary nights of misery. ⁴ I go to bed and I think: When will it be morning? But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn. ⁵ My skin is clothed with worms and scabs. My flesh breaks open filled with pus.

⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle flying back and forth. They end without hope. ⁷ O God, remember that my life is but a breath. I will never again see good. ⁸ You see me now but not for long. Your eyes will be on me but I will be dead. ⁹ Just as a cloud dissipates and vanishes; those who die will not come back. ¹⁰ They are gone forever from their home. They will not be seen again.

¹¹ I will not keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. I must complain in my bitterness. ¹² Am I a sea monster that you place a guard on me? ¹³ When I think: 'My bed will comfort me, and I will try to forget my misery with sleep, ¹⁴ you shatter me with dreams. You terrify me with visions.' ¹⁵ I would rather die of strangulation than go on and on like this. ¹⁶ I hate my life. I do not want to go on living. Oh, leave me alone for these few remaining days.

¹⁷ What is man that you should magnify him and set your mind on him? ¹⁸ For you examine us every morning and test us every moment. ¹⁹ How long will you keep looking at me and let me alone till I swallow my spittle? ²⁰ Have I sinned? What have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why have you made me your target? Am I a burden to you? ²¹ Why not just pardon my sin and take away my guilt? For soon I will lie down in the dust and die. When you look for me, I will be gone.