Job 16
1 Then Job answered:
And Job answers and says:
2 “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.
“I have heard many such things, Miserable comforters [are] you all.
3 Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?
Is there an end to words of wind? Or what emboldens you that you answer?
4 I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
I also, like you, might speak, If your soul were in my soul’s stead. I might join against you with words, And nod at you with my head.
5 But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.
I might harden you with my mouth, And the moving of my lips might be sparing.
6 Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?
If I speak, my pain is not restrained, And I cease—what goes from me?
7 Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.
Only, now, it has wearied me; You have desolated all my company,
8 You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.
And You loathe me, For it has been a witness, And my failure rises up against me, It testifies in my face.
9 His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
His anger has torn, and He hates me, He has gnashed at me with His teeth, My adversary sharpens His eyes for me.
10 They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.
They have gaped on me with their mouth, In reproach they have struck my cheeks, Together they set themselves against me.
11 God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.
God shuts me up to the perverse, And turns me over to the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;
I have been at ease, and He breaks me, And He has laid hold on my neck, And He breaks me in pieces, And He raises me to Him for a mark.
13 His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.
His archers go around against me. He split my reins, and does not spare, He pours out my gall to the earth.
14 He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.
He breaks me—breach on breach, He runs on me as a mighty one.
15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.
I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, And have rolled my horn in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;
My face is foul with weeping, And on my eyelids [is] death-shade.
17 yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.
Not for violence in my hands, And my prayer [is] pure.
18 O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.
O earth, do not cover my blood! And let there not be a place for my cry.
19 Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.
Also, now, behold, my witness [is] in the heavens, And my testifier in the high places.
20 My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.
My interpreter [is] my friend, My eye has dropped to God;
21 Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!
And He reasons for a man with God, As a son of man for his friend.
22 For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.
When a few years come, Then I go [on] the path of no return.”
