2  “I have heard many such things;

^lmiserable comforters are you all.

3  Shall ^mwindy words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

4  I also could speak as you do,

if you were in my place;

I could join words together against you

and ⁿshake my head at you.

5  I could strengthen you with my mouth,

and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

6  “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,

and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

7  Surely now God has worn me out;

he has¹ made desolate all my company.

8  And he has shriveled me up,

which is a witness against me,

and ^omy leanness has risen up against me;

it testifies to my face.

9  He has torn me in his wrath and ^phated me;

he has gnashed his teeth at me;

my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.