Job’s Fifth Speech

¹ Then¹ Job answered and said,

1. Hebrew “And”

² “I have heard many things like these; all of you are ⌞miserable comforters⌟.¹

1. Literally “comforters of trouble”

³ Is there a limit to windy words? What provokes you that you answer?

⁴ I myself¹ also could talk as you, if ⌞you were in my place⌟;² I could join against you with words, and I could shake at you with my head.

1. Emphatic personal pronoun;
2. Literally “there is your soul in place of my soul”

⁵ I could¹ encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would² ease the pain.

1. Or “would”
2. Or “should”

⁶ If I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I cease, how much will leave me?

⁷ “Surely now he has worn me out; you¹ have devastated all my company.

1. Singular

⁸ Thus¹ you shriveled me up;² it became a witness. And my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.

1. Hebrew “And”
2. Or “you have seized me”

⁹ His wrath has torn, and he has been hostile toward me; he gnashed at me with his teeth. My foe sharpens his eyes against me.

¹⁰ They gaped at me with their mouth; they struck my cheeks with disgrace; they have massed themselves together against me.

¹¹ God delivers me to an evil one, and he casts me into the hands of the wicked.

¹² “I was at ease, then¹ he broke me in two, and he seized me by my neck; then² he shattered me and set me up as a target for him.

1. Hebrew “and”
2. Hebrew “and”

¹³ His archers surround me; he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion; he pours out my gall on the ground.

¹⁴ He breached me ⌞breach upon breach⌟;¹ he rushes at me like a warrior.

1. Literally “breach upon the faces of breach”

¹⁵ “I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and I have inserted ⌞my pride⌟¹ in the dust.

1. Literally “my horn”

¹⁶ My face is red because of weeping, and deep shadows are on my eyelids,

¹⁷ ⌞although⌟¹ violence is not on my hands, and my prayer is pure.

1. Literally “upon,” or “because”

¹⁸ “O earth, you should not cover my blood, and let there be no place¹ for my cry for help.

1. Or “do not let it become a place”

¹⁹ So now look, my witness is in the heavens, and he who vouches for me is in the heights.

²⁰ My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,

²¹ and it argues¹ for a mortal with God, and as ⌞a human⌟² for his friend.

1. Or “but may someone argue”
2. Literally “a son of man”

²² Indeed, after ⌞a few years⌟¹ have come, then² I will go the way from which I will not return.

1. Literally “years of number”
2. Hebrew “and”