The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 Then Job defended himself:
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Then Job answered and said,
2 "I've had all I can take of your talk. What a bunch of miserable comforters!
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I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
3 Is there no end to your windbag speeches? What's your problem that you go on and on like this?
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Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
4 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.
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I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
5 But I'd never do that. I'd console and comfort, make things better, not worse!
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But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
6 "When I speak up, I feel no better; if I say nothing, that doesn't help either.
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Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
7 I feel worn down. God, you have wasted me totally - me and my family!
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But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
8 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.
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And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
9 Your anger tears at me, your teeth rip me to shreds, your eyes burn holes in me - God, my enemy!
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He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
10 People take one look at me and gasp. Contemptuous, they slap me around and gang up against me.
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They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
11 And God just stands there and lets them do it, lets wicked people do what they want with me.
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God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
12 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,
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I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
13 then rounded up archers to shoot at me. Merciless, they shot me full of arrows; bitter bile poured from my gut to the ground.
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His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
14 He burst in on me, onslaught after onslaught, charging me like a mad bull.
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He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
15 "I sewed myself a shroud and wore it like a shirt; I lay face down in the dirt.
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I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
16 Now my face is blotched red from weeping; look at the dark shadows under my eyes,
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My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
17 Even though I've never hurt a soul and my prayers are sincere! The One Who Represents Mortals Before God
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Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
18 "O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me! Don't muffle my cry!
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O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
19 There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name -
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Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
20 My Champion, my Friend, while I'm weeping my eyes out before God.
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My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
21 I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor.
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O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
22 "Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return.
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When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
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.
The King James Version is in the public domain.