Job 16

1 But Job answered and said,

Job replied [to Eliphaz and the others: ]

2 I have heard many such things: poor comforters are you all.

“I have heard things like that before; all of you, [instead of helping me, ] are only causing me to feel more miserable.

3 What! is there any reason in vain words? or what will hinder you from answering?

Will your speeches, which are only hot air, never end [RHQ]? Eliphaz, what bothers/irritates you so much that you continue replying to me?

4 I also will speak as you [do]: if indeed your soul were in my [soul's] stead, then would I insult you with words, and I would shake my head at you.

If it were you [three and not I] who were suffering, I could say the things that you are saying; I could make great speeches [to criticize/condemn you], and I could shake my head at you [to ridicule you].

5 And would there were strength in my mouth, and I would not spare the movement of my lips.

But, [unlike all of you, ] with what I said [MTY] I would encourage you and try to cause your pain to be less.

6 For if I should speak, I shall not feel the pain of my wound: and if I should be silent, how shall I be wounded the less?

“But now, if I talk, my pain does not decrease, and if I am silent, my pain still certainly does not [RHQ] go away.

7 But now he has made me weary, and a worn-out fool; and you have laid hold of me.

God has now taken away all my strength, and he has destroyed my family.

8 My falsehood has become a testimony, and has risen up against me: it has confronted me to my face.

He has shriveled me up, and people think that shows that I [am a sinner]. And people see that I am only skin and bones, and they think that proves that I [am guilty].

9 In his anger he has cast me down; he has gnashed his teeth upon me: the weapons of his robbers have fallen upon me.

Because God is very angry with me and hates me, [it is as though he is a wild animal that] [MET] has gnashed his teeth at me because he is my enemy.

10 He has attacked me with the keen glances of his eyes; with his sharp [spear] he has struck me [down] upon my knees; and they have run upon me with one accord.

People gape/stare at me with their mouths open [to sneer at me]; they have struck me on the face/cheek to ridicule me, and they crowd around me to threaten me.

11 For the Lord has delivered me into the hands of unrighteous men, and thrown me upon the ungodly.

[It is as though] God has handed me over to ungodly people and turned me over to the wicked [DOU].

12 When I was at peace he distracted me: he took me by the hair of the head, and plucked it out: he set me up as a mark.

Previously, I was living peacefully, but he crushed me; [it is as though] he grabbed my neck and smashed me to pieces. [It is as though] [MET] he set me up like a target;

13 They surrounded me with spears, aiming at my reins: without sparing [me] they poured out my gall upon the ground.

people are surrounding me [and shooting arrows at me]. His arrows pierce my kidneys and cause the bile [from my liver] to spill onto the ground, and God does not pity me at all.

14 They overthrew me with fall upon fall: they ran upon me in [their] might.

[It is as though] [MET] I am a wall that he is breaking through; he rushes at me like [SIM] a soldier [attacking his enemies].

15 They sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and my strength has been spent on the ground.

[“Because I am mourning, ] I wear pieces of rough cloth that I have sewed together, and I sit [here] in the dirt, very depressed/discouraged.

16 My belly has been parched with wailing, and darkness is on my eyelids.

My face is red because I have cried very much, and there are dark circles around my eyes.

17 Yet there was no injustice in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

[All this has happened to me] even though I have not acted violently [toward anyone], and I [always] pray sincerely/honestly [to God].

18 Earth, cover not over the blood of my flesh, and let my cry have no place.

[When I die, ] I want the ground [APO] to [act as though I had been murdered and] cry out against those who killed me, and I do not want anyone to stop me while I am demanding [that God act justly toward] me.

19 And now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.

But even now, [I know that] there is someone in heaven who will testify for me, and he will say that what I have done is right.

20 Let my supplication come to the Lord, and let mine eye weep before him.

My [three] friends scorn/ridicule me, but my eyes are full of tears [while I cry out] to God.

21 Oh that a man might plead before the Lord, even [as] the son of man with his neighbour!

I pray that [the] one [who knows what I have done] would come to plead with God for me like people plead for their friends.

22 But my years are numbered and [their end] come, and I shall go by the way by which I shall not return.

[I say this because] within a few years [I will die]; I will walk along the [to the grave] from which I will never return.”