Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Then Iyov answered,
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Then Job defended himself:
2 "I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all!
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"I've had all I can take of your talk. What a bunch of miserable comforters!
3 Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
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Is there no end to your windbag speeches? What's your problem that you go on and on like this?
4 I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul's place, I could join words together against you, And shake my head at you.
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If you were in my shoes, I could talk just like you. I could put together a terrific harangue and really let you have it.
5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.
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But I'd never do that. I'd console and comfort, make things better, not worse!
6 "Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?
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"When I speak up, I feel no better; if I say nothing, that doesn't help either.
7 But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made desolate all my company.
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I feel worn down. God, you have wasted me totally - me and my family!
8 You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face.
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You've shriveled me like a dried prune, showing the world that you're against me. My gaunt face stares back at me from the mirror, a mute witness to your treatment of me.
9 He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me; He has gnashed on me with his teeth: My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
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Your anger tears at me, your teeth rip me to shreds, your eyes burn holes in me - God, my enemy!
10 They have gaped on me with their mouth; They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.
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People take one look at me and gasp. Contemptuous, they slap me around and gang up against me.
11 God delivers me to the ungodly, And casts me into the hands of the wicked.
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And God just stands there and lets them do it, lets wicked people do what they want with me.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.
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I was contentedly minding my business when God beat me up. He grabbed me by the neck and threw me around. He set me up as his target,
13 His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.
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then rounded up archers to shoot at me. Merciless, they shot me full of arrows; bitter bile poured from my gut to the ground.
14 He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a Rafa.
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He burst in on me, onslaught after onslaught, charging me like a mad bull.
15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, And have thrust my horn in the dust.
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"I sewed myself a shroud and wore it like a shirt; I lay face down in the dirt.
16 My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids.
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Now my face is blotched red from weeping; look at the dark shadows under my eyes,
17 Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.
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Even though I've never hurt a soul and my prayers are sincere! The One Who Represents Mortals Before God
18 "Eretz, don't cover my blood, Let my cry have no place to rest.
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"O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me! Don't muffle my cry!
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.
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There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name -
20 My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,
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My Champion, my Friend, while I'm weeping my eyes out before God.
21 That he would maintain the right of a man with God, Of a son of man with his neighbor!
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I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor.
22 For when a few years are come, I shall go the way from whence I shall not return.
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"Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.