Job

2 “If only my vexation were to be weighed

and they were to take up my catastrophe altogether on the scales,

3* Because it would then outweigh the sand of the sea!

that is why my words were so rash.

4 For I have Shaddai’s arrows in me,

their poison drinking out my spirit;

God’s overwhelmings are in the field against me.

5 Will a wild ass bray over greensward

or a cow moo over its mess of barley?

6* Is flour paste to be eaten without salt,

or is there flavor in marshmallow?

7* My appetite refuses to touch,

loathes my food like the discharges of my disease.

8 If only what I ask would come,

and God would give what I am hoping for,

9 And God would be pleased to fell me,

would turn his hand loose and finish me off!

10* And it would yet be my comfort,

and I should break away in the pang that he does not spare,

because I have never hushed up the say of the Holy One.

11 What is my strength, that I should wait?

and what is my end, that I should be patient?

12 Or is my strength the strength of stones?

or is my flesh bronze?

13 —Or do I have in me no help for myself

and are sensible ideas knocked out of me?

14* One who fails to get friendship from his friend

will leave off the fear of Shaddai.

15 My brothers have played false like an arroyo,

like a bed of arroyo-streams that run off,

16 That are black with winter weather,

on which snow goes out of sight;

17* At the scorching time they are wiped out;

in the heat they disappear from their place;

18 The line of their course twists about,

they go up into nothingness and are lost.

19 The wayfarers from Teman were looking,

the caravans from Sheba were hoping for them;

20** They were disappointed because they had relied on them;

they came to them and were discomfited.

21* You have now been the same to me;

you see a horror and are afraid.

22 Was I saying ‘Give me’

or ‘Pay a tip for me out of your means

23 And get me off out of a foeman’s hands

and ransom me out of the hands of ruffians’?

24 Instruct me and I will be silent;

make it clear to me what missteps I have made.

25* How telling are frank utterances!

but what does correction from you correct?

26 Do you think of correcting talk?

but a despairing man’s say amounts to wind.

27* Will you even fall upon a man of conscientious life

and charge down upon your friend?

28 Now please face me;

I will not lie to your faces.

29* Come back; let us have no foul play;

come back, I still have my honesty in it.

30 Is there foul play on my tongue?

or does my palate not discriminate catastrophes?