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2“I have heard many things like these;
miserable comforters are you all!

3Will your long-winded speeches never end?
What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4I also could speak like you,
if you were in my place;
I could make fine speeches against you
and shake my head at you.

5But my mouth would encourage you;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

6“Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I refrain, it does not go away.

7Surely, O God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.

8You have bound me—and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

9God assails me and tears me in his anger
and gnashes his teeth at me;
my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

10Men open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.

11God has turned me over to evil men
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

12All was well with me, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;

13his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.

14Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.

15“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
and buried my brow in the dust.

16My face is red with weeping,
deep shadows ring my eyes;

17yet my hands have been free of violence
and my prayer is pure.

18“O earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!

19Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.

20My intercessor is my friendOr My friends treat me with scorn
as my eyes pour out tears to God;

21on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as a man pleads for his friend.

2Surely mockers surround me;
my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

3“Give me, O God, the pledge you demand.
Who else will put up security for me?

4You have closed their minds to understanding;
therefore you will not let them triumph.

5If a man denounces his friends for reward,
the eyes of his children will fail.

6“God has made me a byword to everyone,
a man in whose face people spit.

7My eyes have grown dim with grief;
my whole frame is but a shadow.

8Upright men are appalled at this;
the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.

9Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways,
and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

10“But come on, all of you, try again!
I will not find a wise man among you.

11My days have passed, my plans are shattered,
and so are the desires of my heart.

12These men turn night into day;
in the face of darkness they say, ‘Light is near.’

13If the only home I hope for is the grave,Hebrew Sheol
if I spread out my bed in darkness,

14if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’

15where then is my hope?
Who can see any hope for me?

16Will it go down to the gates of deathHebrew Sheol?
Will we descend together into the dust?”