6:1 Then Job replied:
6:2 “If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales!
6:3 It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas - no wonder my words have been impetuous.
6:4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me.
6:5 Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder?
6:6 Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the sap of the mallow*? / *The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
6:7 I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill.
6:8 “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for,
6:9 that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life!
6:10 Then I would still have this consolation - my joy in unrelenting pain - that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.
6:11 “What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?
6:12 Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?
6:13 Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?
6:14 “Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
6:15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow
6:16 when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,
6:17 but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.
6:18 Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go off into the wasteland and perish.
6:19 The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.
6:20 They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.
6:21 Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.
6:22 Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf, pay a ransom for me from your wealth,
6:23 deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?
6:24 “Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.
6:25 How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?
6:26 Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind?
6:27 You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.
6:28 “But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face?
6:29 Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake.* / *Or my righteousness still stands
6:30 Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern malice?