² “I must reply
    because I am greatly disturbed.
³ I’ve had to endure your insults,
    but now my spirit prompts me to reply.

⁴ “Don’t you realize that from the beginning of time,
    ever since people were first placed on the earth,
⁵ the triumph of the wicked has been short lived
    and the joy of the godless has been only temporary?
⁶ Though the pride of the godless reaches to the heavens
    and their heads touch the clouds,
⁷ yet they will vanish forever,
    thrown away like their own dung.
Those who knew them will ask,
    ‘Where are they?’
⁸ They will fade like a dream and not be found.
    They will vanish like a vision in the night.
⁹ Those who once saw them will see them no more.
    Their families will never see them again.
¹⁰ Their children will beg from the poor,
    for they must give back their stolen riches.
¹¹ Though they are young,
    their bones will lie in the dust.

¹² “They enjoyed the sweet taste of wickedness,
    letting it melt under their tongue.
¹³ They savored it,
    holding it long in their mouths.
¹⁴ But suddenly the food in their bellies turns sour,
    a poisonous venom in their stomach.
¹⁵ They will vomit the wealth they swallowed.
    God won’t let them keep it down.
¹⁶ They will suck the poison of cobras.
    The viper will kill them.
¹⁷ They will never again enjoy streams of olive oil
    or rivers of milk and honey.
¹⁸ They will give back everything they worked for.
    Their wealth will bring them no joy.
¹⁹ For they oppressed the poor and left them destitute.
    They foreclosed on their homes.
²⁰ They were always greedy and never satisfied.
    Nothing remains of all the things they dreamed about.
²¹ Nothing is left after they finish gorging themselves.
    Therefore, their prosperity will not endure.

²² “In the midst of plenty, they will run into trouble
    and be overcome by misery.
²³ May God give them a bellyful of trouble.
    May God rain down his anger upon them.
²⁴ When they try to escape an iron weapon,
    a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce them.
²⁵ The arrow is pulled from their back,
    and the arrowhead glistens with blood.^[a]
The terrors of death are upon them.
²⁶     Their treasures will be thrown into deepest darkness.
A wildfire will devour their goods,
    consuming all they have left.
²⁷ The heavens will reveal their guilt,
    and the earth will testify against them.
²⁸ A flood will sweep away their house.
    God’s anger will descend on them in torrents.
²⁹ This is the reward that God gives the wicked.
    It is the inheritance decreed by God.”

² “How long will you torture me?
    How long will you try to crush me with your words?
³ You have already insulted me ten times.
    You should be ashamed of treating me so badly.
⁴ Even if I have sinned,
    that is my concern, not yours.
⁵ You think you’re better than I am,
    using my humiliation as evidence of my sin.
⁶ But it is God who has wronged me,
    capturing me in his net.^[a]

⁷ “I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me.
    I protest, but there is no justice.
⁸ God has blocked my way so I cannot move.
    He has plunged my path into darkness.
⁹ He has stripped me of my honor
    and removed the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished.
    He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree.
¹¹ His fury burns against me;
    he counts me as an enemy.
¹² His troops advance.
    They build up roads to attack me.
    They camp all around my tent.

¹³ “My relatives stay far away,
    and my friends have turned against me.
¹⁴ My family is gone,
    and my close friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵ My servants and maids consider me a stranger.
    I am like a foreigner to them.
¹⁶ When I call my servant, he doesn’t come;
    I have to plead with him!
¹⁷ My breath is repulsive to my wife.
    I am rejected by my own family.
¹⁸ Even young children despise me.
    When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me.
¹⁹ My close friends detest me.
    Those I loved have turned against me.
²⁰ I have been reduced to skin and bones
    and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.

²¹ “Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,
    for the hand of God has struck me.
²² Must you also persecute me, like God does?
    Haven’t you chewed me up enough?

²³ “Oh, that my words could be recorded.
    Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument,
²⁴ carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead,
    engraved forever in the rock.

²⁵ “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and he will stand upon the earth at last.
²⁶ And after my body has decayed,
    yet in my body I will see God!^[b]
27 I will see him for myself.
    Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.
    I am overwhelmed at the thought!

²⁸ “How dare you go on persecuting me,
    saying, ‘It’s his own fault’?
²⁹ You should fear punishment yourselves,
    for your attitude deserves punishment.
    Then you will know that there is indeed a judgment.”

² “How long before you stop talking?
    Speak sense if you want us to answer!
³ Do you think we are mere animals?
    Do you think we are stupid?
⁴ You may tear out your hair in anger,
    but will that destroy the earth?
    Will it make the rocks tremble?

⁵ “Surely the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.
    The sparks of their fire will not glow.
⁶ The light in their tent will grow dark.
    The lamp hanging above them will be quenched.
⁷ The confident stride of the wicked will be shortened.
    Their own schemes will be their downfall.
⁸ The wicked walk into a net.
    They fall into a pit.
⁹ A trap grabs them by the heel.
    A snare holds them tight.
¹⁰ A noose lies hidden on the ground.
    A rope is stretched across their path.

¹¹ “Terrors surround the wicked
    and trouble them at every step.
¹² Hunger depletes their strength,
    and calamity waits for them to stumble.
¹³ Disease eats their skin;
    death devours their limbs.
¹⁴ They are torn from the security of their homes
    and are brought down to the king of terrors.
¹⁵ The homes of the wicked will burn down;
    burning sulfur rains on their houses.
¹⁶ Their roots will dry up,
    and their branches will wither.
¹⁷ All memory of their existence will fade from the earth;
    no one will remember their names.
¹⁸ They will be thrust from light into darkness,
    driven from the world.
¹⁹ They will have neither children nor grandchildren,
    nor any survivor in the place where they lived.
²⁰ People in the west are appalled at their fate;
    people in the east are horrified.
²¹ They will say, ‘This was the home of a wicked person,
    the place of one who rejected God.’”

² “I have heard all this before.
    What miserable comforters you are!
³ Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air?
    What makes you keep on talking?
⁴ I could say the same things if you were in my place.
    I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.
⁵ But if it were me, I would encourage you.
    I would try to take away your grief.
⁶ Instead, I suffer if I defend myself,
    and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.

⁷ “O God, you have ground me down
    and devastated my family.
⁸ As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones.
    My gaunt flesh testifies against me.
⁹ God hates me and angrily tears me apart.
    He snaps his teeth at me
    and pierces me with his eyes.
¹⁰ People jeer and laugh at me.
    They slap my cheek in contempt.
    A mob gathers against me.
¹¹ God has handed me over to sinners.
    He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.

¹² “I was living quietly until he shattered me.
    He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces.
Then he set me up as his target,
¹³     and now his archers surround me.
His arrows pierce me without mercy.
    The ground is wet with my blood.^[a]
14 Again and again he smashes against me,
    charging at me like a warrior.
¹⁵ I wear burlap to show my grief.
    My pride lies in the dust.
¹⁶ My eyes are red with weeping;
    dark shadows circle my eyes.
¹⁷ Yet I have done no wrong,
    and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “O earth, do not conceal my blood.
    Let it cry out on my behalf.
¹⁹ Even now my witness is in heaven.
    My advocate is there on high.
²⁰ My friends scorn me,
    but I pour out my tears to God.
²¹ I need someone to mediate between God and me,
    as a person mediates between friends.
²² For soon I must go down that road
    from which I will never return.