Job 16
1 And Job made answer and said,
Then responded Job, and said: —
2 Such things have frequently come to my ears: you are comforters who only give trouble.
I have heard many such things, Wearisome comforters, are ye all!
3 May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is troubling you to make answer to them?
Is there to be an end to windy words? Or what so strongly exciteth thee, that thou must respond?
4 It would not be hard for me to say such things if your souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against you, and shaking my head at you:
I also, like you, could speak, —If your soul were in the place of my soul, I could string together words against you, and could therewith shake over you my head.
5 I might give you strength with my mouth, and not keep back the comfort of my lips.
I could make you determined, by my mouth, and then my lip-solace should restrain you.
6 If I say what is in my mind, my pain becomes no less: and if I keep quiet, how much of it goes from me?
Though I do speak, unassuaged is my stinging pain, —And, if I forbear, of what am I relieved?
7 But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and I am in the grip of all my trouble.
But, now, hath he wearied me, thou hast destroyed all my family;
8 It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face.
And, having captured me, it hath served, as a witness; and so my wasting away hath risen up against me, in my face, it answereth.
9 I am broken by his wrath, and his hate has gone after me; he has made his teeth sharp against me: my haters are looking on me with cruel eyes;
His anger, hath torn and persecuted me, He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth, Mine adversary, hath sharpened his eyes for me.
10 Their mouths are open wide against me; the blows of his bitter words are falling on my face; all of them come together in a mass against me.
They have gaped upon me with their mouth, With reproach, have they smitten my cheek, Together, against me, have they closed their ranks.
11 God gives me over to the power of sinners, sending me violently into the hands of evil-doers.
GOD doth abandon me to him that is perverse, and, into the hands of the lawless, he throweth me headlong.
12 I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands; he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits; he has put me up as a mark for his arrows.
At ease, was I when he shattered me, Yea he seized me by my neck, and dashed me in pieces, then set me up for himself as a mark:
13 His bowmen come round about me; their arrows go through my body without mercy; my life is drained out on the earth.
His archers came round against me, He clave asunder my reins, and spared not, He poured out, on the earth, my gall:
14 I am broken with wound after wound; he comes rushing on me like a man of war.
He made a breach in me, breach upon breach, He ran upon me, like a mighty man.
15 I have made haircloth the clothing of my skin, and my horn is rolled in the dust.
Sackcloth, sewed I on my skin, and rolled—in the dust—my horn:
16 My face is red with weeping, and my eyes are becoming dark;
My face, is reddened from weeping, and, upon mine eyelashes, is the death-shade: —
17 Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my prayer is clean.
Though no violence was in my hands, and, my prayer, was pure.
18 O earth, let not my blood be covered, and let my cry have no resting-place!
O earth! do not cover my blood, and let there be no place for mine outcry.
19 Even now my witness is in heaven, and the supporter of my cause is on high.
Even now, lo! in the heavens, is my witness,
20 My friends make sport of me; to God my eyes are weeping,
And, he that voucheth for me is on high. My friends are, they who scorn me, Unto GOD, hath mine eye shed tears: —
21 So that he may give decision for a man in his cause with God, and between a son of man and his neighbour.
That one might plead, for a man, with GOD, —Even a son of man, for his friend!
22 For in a short time I will take the journey from which I will not come back.
When, a few years, come, then, by a path by which I shall not return, shall I depart.
