Job 6:1  Job answered:

Job 6:2  "If my misery could be weighed, if you could pile the whole bitter load on the scales,

Job 6:3  It would be heavier than all the sand of the sea! Is it any wonder that I'm screaming like a caged cat?

Job 6:4  The arrows of God Almighty are in me, poison arrows--and I'm poisoned all through! God has dumped the whole works on me.

Job 6:5  Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture-- so don't expect me to keep quiet in this.

Job 6:6  Do you see what God has dished out for me? It's enough to turn anyone's stomach!

Job 6:7  Everything in me is repulsed by it-- it makes me sick.

Job 6:8  "All I want is an answer to one prayer, a last request to be honored:

Job 6:9  Let God step on me--squash me like a bug, and be done with me for good.

Job 6:10  I'd at least have the satisfaction of not having blasphemed the Holy God, before being pressed past the limits.

Job 6:11  Where's the strength to keep my hopes up? What future do I have to keep me going?

Job 6:12  Do you think I have nerves of steel? Do you think I'm made of iron?

Job 6:13  Do you think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps? Why, I don't even have any boots!

Job 6:14  "When desperate people give up on God Almighty, their friends, at least, should stick with them.

Job 6:15  But my brothers are fickle as a gulch in the desert-- one day they're gushing with water

Job 6:16  From melting ice and snow cascading out of the mountains,

Job 6:17  But by midsummer they're dry, gullies baked dry in the sun.

Job 6:18  Travelers who spot them and go out of their way for a drink, end up in a waterless gulch and die of thirst.

Job 6:19  Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water, tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink.

Job 6:20  They arrive so confident--but what a disappointment! They get there, and their faces fall!

Job 6:21  And you, my so-called friends, are no better-- there's nothing to you! One look at a hard scene and you shrink in fear.

Job 6:22  It's not as though I asked you for anything-- I didn't ask you for one red cent--

Job 6:23  Nor did I beg you to go out on a limb for me. So why all this dodging and shuffling?

Job 6:24  "Confront me with the truth and I'll shut up, show me where I've gone off the track.

Job 6:25  Honest words never hurt anyone, but what's the point of all this pious bluster?

Job 6:26  You pretend to tell me what's wrong with my life, but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air.

Job 6:27  Are people mere things to you? Are friends just items of profit and loss?

Job 6:28  "Look me in the eyes! Do you think I'd lie to your face?

Job 6:29  Think it over--no double-talk! Think carefully--my integrity is on the line!

Job 6:30  Can you detect anything false in what I say? Don't you trust me to discern good from evil?