1Then Job spoke again, saying to Eliphaz,
2“If all my troubles and misery could be put on a scale and weighed,
3they would be heavier than all the sands on the shores of the oceans.
4It is as though Almighty God has shot me with arrows.
5Just like a wild donkey does not complain by braying when it has plenty of grass to eat,
6People complain [RHQ] when they must eat food which has no salt
7Just like I do not want to eat food like that,
8“I wish that God would do for me what I have requested from him [DOU].
9I wish that he would crush me and let me die.
10If he would do that, I would be comforted by knowing that in spite of the great pain that I have suffered,
11But now I do not have [RHQ] enough strength to endure all these things.
12I am not [RHQ] strong like rocks are,
13So I am not able to help myself,
14“When a man has many troubles, his friends should be kind to him,
15But you, my friends, are not dependable.
16when the melting ice and snow make those streams overflow,
17but when the dry season comes, there is no water flowing in those streams,
18The caravans of merchants turn off the path to search for some water,
19The men in those caravans search for some water
20But they do not find any,
21Similarly, you friends have not helped me at all!
22After I lost all my wealth, did I ask any of you for money? [RHQ]
23Have I asked any of you to rescue me from my enemies [RHQ]?
24“Answer me now, and then I will be quiet;
25When people speak what is true, that will not hurt the person who hears it,
26I am a man who has nothing to hope for,
27You do not sympathize with me at all for all that I am suffering.
28Please look at me! I will not [RHQ] lie to you.
29Stop saying that I have sinned, and stop criticizing me unjustly!
30Do you think that I am lying?