"I'm pure. I'm without sin; I'm innocent. I'm harboring no iniquity inside of me.

Though I'm in the right, my own mouth will condemn me; though I'm blameless, he'll pronounce me as guilty.

""Woe to me if I'm guilty! If I'm innocent, I cannot lift my head, because I am filled with disgrace. Look at my affliction!

That's why I'm terrified at his presence! When I think about it, I'm afraid of him.

If this weren't so, who can prove that I'm a liar by showing that there's nothing to what I'm saying?"

"As far as I'm concerned, my food comes to me in the form of sighs, and my cries of anguish pour out like water.

What you know, I know, too; I'm not inferior to you.

But I want to talk to the Almighty; and I'm determined to argue my case before God."

"Look, now! I've prepared my case for court. I know that I'm going to win.

So I'm a man who wears out like something rotten, like a garment that has become moth-eaten."

"He has made me a byword among people; I'm being spit on in the face.

Those who live in my house and my maidservants, too! treat me like a stranger; they think I'm a foreigner.

I'm a pile of skin and bones; I have barely escaped by the skin of my teeth."

Why are you chasing me, as God has been doing? Aren't you satisfied that I'm sick?

"Therefore my anxious thoughts cause me to answer because I'm agitated within me.

"Who will grant my wish? I wish God would grant what I'm hoping for:

I'm like a servant who longs for the shade, like a hired laborer who is looking for his wages.

Why haven't you pardoned my transgression and taken away my iniquity? Now I'm about to lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I won't be around!"

"Indeed, I'm fully aware that this is so, but how can a person become right with God?

Even if I'm in the right, I cannot answer him. I can only appeal for mercy.

"I'm blameless; I don't know myself; I despise my life.

Otherwise, I would speak without being terrified of him, because I'm not like that inside myself."

"I am disgusted with living, so I'm going to talk about my complaint freely. I'll speak out from the bitterness of my soul.

Although you know that I'm not guilty, there's no one to deliver me from you!

You've said, "My teaching is flawless; I'm clean in God's sight.'

Like you, I also have understanding. I'm not inferior to you; who doesn't know things like this?"

"I'm a laughingstock to my friends, someone who called on God. But then he answered this upright and blameless man, and I have become a laughingstock.

"Now, I've become the object of their mocking melodies; I'm nothing but a fool's proverb to them!

I know that you're about to kill me, so I'm about to go to the house that's appointed for all the living."

I'm boiling mad inside, and I won't remain silent; the time for my affliction to confront me has arrived.

For I'm terrified of what calamity God may have in store for me; and I cannot endure his grandeur."

Barachel's son Elihu from Buz responded and said: "I'm younger than you are. Because you're older, I was terrified to tell you what I know.

Therefore I'm saying, "Listen to me!' Then I'll declare what I know.

because I'm filled with things to say, and my spirit within me compels me to speak.

Look! I've begun to speak, and I'm fashioning my words.

Look! As far as God is concerned, I'm just like you are I, too, have been pinched off from a piece of clay.

Now this is Job's claim: "Even though I'm innocent, God has stopped treating me righteously.

"Are you saying that it's just for you to claim, "I'm more righteous than God?'

I'm going to respond to that statement, and to your friends with you."

When I think about this, I'm petrified with terror and my body shudders uncontrollably."

"I'm still complaining bitterly today; my hand is heavy because of groaning.

"I used to say: "I will die in my home. I'm going to live as many days as there are grains of sand on the shore.

"I must look insignificant to you! How can I answer you? I'm speechless.

And LORD said to Satan, Have thou considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although thou m