Job 16
1 Then Job answered:
Then Job answered and said,
2 “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.
“I have heard many such things; you are all miserable comforters.
3 Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?
Will useless words ever have an end? What is wrong with you that you answer like this?
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 could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could collect and join words together against you and shake my head at you in mockery.
5 But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.
I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the quivering of my lips will bring you relief!
6 Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?
If I speak, my grief is not lessened; if I keep from speaking, how am I helped?
7 Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.
But now, God, you have made me weary; you have made all my family desolate.
8 You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.
You have made me dry up, which itself is a witness against me; the leanness of my body rises up against me, and it testifies against my face.
9 His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
God has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me; He grinds his teeth in rage; my enemy fastens his eyes on me as he tears me apart.
10 They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.
People have gaped with open mouth at me; they have hit me reproachfully on the cheek; they have gathered together against me.
11 God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.
God hands me over to ungodly people, and throws me into the hands of wicked people.
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 was at ease, and he broke me apart. Indeed, he has taken me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he has also set me up as his target.
13 His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.
His archers surround me all around; God pierces my kidneys and does not spare me; he pours out my bile on the ground.
14 He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.
He smashes through my wall again and again; he runs upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.
I have sewn sackcloth on my skin; I have thrust my horn into the ground.
16 My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;
My face is red with weeping; on my eyelids is the shadow of death
17 yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.
although there is no 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.
Earth, do not cover up my blood; let my cry have no resting place.
19 Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.
Even now, see, my witness is in heaven; he who vouches for me is on high.
20 My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.
My friends scoff at me, but my eye pours out tears to God.
21 Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!
I ask for that witness in heaven to argue for this man with God as a man does with his neighbor!
22 For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.
For when a few years have passed, I will go to a place from where I will not return.
