Study Desk

I am blameless. I do not know myself. I despise my life.

If I am guilty, why then weary myself in vain?

For he is not a human being like I am, that I might answer him, that we might come together in judgment.

"I am weary of my life; I will complain without restraint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

although you know that I am not guilty, and that there is no one who can deliver out of your hand?

If I am guilty, woe to me, and if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head; I am full of shame, and satiated with my affliction.

For you have said, ‘My teaching is flawless, and I am pure in your sight.'

I also have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

I am a laughingstock to my friends, I, who called on God and whom he answered— a righteous and blameless man is a laughingstock!

What you know, I know also; I am not inferior to you!

See now, I have prepared my case; I know that I am right.

He has made me a byword to people, I am the one in whose face they spit.

My guests and my servant girls consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their eyes.

My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my brothers.

For, when I think about this, I am terrified and my body feels a shudder.

That is why I am terrified in his presence; when I consider, I am afraid because of him.

So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up: "I am young, but you are elderly; that is why I was fearful, and afraid to explain to you what I know.

For I am full of words, and the spirit within me constrains me.

Inside I am like wine which has no outlet, like new wineskins ready to burst!

Look, I am just like you in relation to God; I too have been molded from clay.