Read New International Version, 2011 Job 6 Bible Online

Job 6 - New International Version, 2011 bible

Job 6

¹Then Job replied:

²“If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales!

³It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas — no wonder my words have been impetuous.

⁴The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me.

⁵Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder?

⁶Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the sap of the mallow [8]?

⁷I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill.

⁸“Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for,

⁹that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life!

¹⁰Then I would still have this consolation — my joy in unrelenting pain — that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?

¹²Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?

¹³Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?

¹⁴“Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow

¹⁶when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,

¹⁷but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.

¹⁸Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go off into the wasteland and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.

²⁰They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.

²¹Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.

²²Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf, pay a ransom for me from your wealth,

²³deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?

²⁴“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.

²⁵How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?

²⁶Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind?

²⁷You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.

²⁸“But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face?

²⁹Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake. [9]

³⁰Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern malice?