Job’s reply to Eliphaz
6
📚✭But Job answered and said, 2 📚“Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it in the balances!
3 📚For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been wild. 4 📚✭For the arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
5 📚✭Does the wild donkey bray when it has grass? Or does an ox bellow over its fodder?
6 📚Can what is unsavoury be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg✭?
7 📚My soul refuses to touch them; they are like disgusting food to me.
8 📚✭Oh, that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
9 📚Oh, that it would please God to crush me! That he would let loose his hand and cut me off! 10 📚Then I would still have comfort; yes, I would exult in unrelenting pain, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
11 📚✭“What is my strength, that I should hope? And what is my end, that I should prolong my life?
12 📚Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze?
13 📚Is it that my help is not in me? And that success has been driven from me?
14 📚✭“To him who is afflicted kindness should be shown by his friend, or he may forsake the fear of the Almighty.
15 📚My brethren have acted deceitfully, like a brook, and like the stream of brooks that pass away,
16 Which are dark because of the ice, and in which snow is hidden.
17 📚When it becomes warm, they cease to flow; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
18 The paths of their course turn aside; they go nowhere, and perish.
19 📚The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope for them.
20 📚They are disappointed because they were confident. They arrive there and are confused.
21 📚For now you are no help. You see a fearful thing and are afraid.
22 📚✭Did I say, ‘Bring something to me?’ Or, ‘Give a reward for me from your wealth?’
23 📚Or, ‘Deliver me from the enemy’s hand?’ Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?’
24 📚“Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; and make me understand where I have gone wrong.
25 📚✭How forceful are right words! But what does your arguing prove?
26 📚Do you intend to rebuke the words and speeches of one who is desperate, which are like wind?
27 📚Yes, you would overwhelm the fatherless, and dig a pit for your friend.
28 📚✭“Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for it will be evident to you if I am lying.
29 📚Please relent, let there be no injustice; yes, relent. My righteousness is in question.
30 📚Is there iniquity in my tongue? Cannot my taste discern wrong things?