Study Desk

"Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.

Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, "I am young, and you are very old; Therefore I held back, and didn't dare show you my opinion.

For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me.

Behold, I am toward God even as you are: I am also formed out of the clay.

'I am clean, without disobedience. I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me:

For Job has said, 'I am righteous, God has taken away my right:

Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar; My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.'

"For has any said to God, 'I am guilty, but I will not offend any more.

"Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

I am weary with my groaning; Every night I flood my bed; I drench my couch with my tears.

My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don't answer; In the night season, and am not silent.

But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.

I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.

Turn to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted.

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.

Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.

I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery.