² “I’ve heard many of these things before.
    All of you are terrible at comforting me!
³ Your speeches go on forever.
    Won’t they ever end?
What’s wrong with you?
    Why do you keep on arguing?
⁴ If you and I changed places,
    I could say the same things you are saying.
I could make fine speeches against you.
    I could shake my head at you.
⁵ But what I might say would give you hope.
    My words of comfort would help you.

⁶ “If I speak, it doesn’t help me.
    And if I keep quiet, my pain doesn’t go away.
⁷ God has worn me out completely.
    He has destroyed my whole family.
⁸ People can see the condition he has put me in.
    My thin body stands as a witness against me.
⁹ God is angry with me.
    He attacks me and tears me up.
He grinds his teeth at me.
    He stares at me as if he were my enemy.
¹⁰ People make fun of me.
    They slap my face and laugh at me.
    All of them join together against me.
¹¹ God has turned me over to sinful people.
    He has handed me over to them.
¹² Everything was going well with me.
    But he broke me into pieces like a clay pot.
    He grabbed me by the neck and crushed me.
He has taken aim at me.
¹³     He shoots his arrows at me from all sides.
Without pity, he stabs me in the kidneys.
    He spills my insides on the ground.
¹⁴ He smashes through me as if I were a wall.
    He rushes at me like a fighting man.

¹⁵ “I’ve sewed rough clothing over my skin.
    All I can do is sit here in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red from crying.
    I have dark circles under my eyes.
¹⁷ But I haven’t harmed anyone.
    My prayers to God are pure.

¹⁸ “Earth, please don’t cover up my blood!
    May God always hear my cry for help!
¹⁹ Even now my witness is in heaven.
    The one who speaks up for me is there.
²⁰ My go-between is my friend
    as I pour out my tears to God.
²¹ He makes his appeal to God to help me
    as a person pleads for a friend.

²² “Only a few years will pass by.
    Then I’ll take the path of no return.