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Job Replies: My Complaint Is Just

6Then Job answered:
² ‘O that my vexation were weighed,
   and all my calamity laid in the balances!
³ For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;
   therefore my words have been rash.
⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty^* are in me;
   my spirit drinks their poison;
   the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
⁵ Does the wild ass bray over its grass,
   or the ox low over its fodder?
⁶ Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt,
   or is there any flavour in the juice of mallows?^*
7 My appetite refuses to touch them;
   they are like food that is loathsome to me.^*

⁸ ‘O that I might have my request,
   and that God would grant my desire;
⁹ that it would please God to crush me,
   that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
¹⁰ This would be my consolation;
   I would even exult^* 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 be patient?
¹² Is my strength the strength of stones,
   or is my flesh bronze?
¹³ In truth I have no help in me,
   and any resource is driven from me.

¹⁴ ‘Those who withhold^* kindness from a friend
   forsake the fear of the Almighty.^*
15 My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed,
   like freshets that pass away,
¹⁶ that run dark with ice,
   turbid with melting snow.
¹⁷ In time of heat they disappear;
   when it is hot, they vanish from their place.
¹⁸ The caravans turn aside from their course;
   they go up into the waste, and perish.
¹⁹ The caravans of Tema look,
   the travellers of Sheba hope.
²⁰ They are disappointed because they were confident;
   they come there and are confounded.
²¹ Such you have now become to me;^*
   you see my calamity, and are afraid.