Job 16
1 Then Job, answering, said:
And Job answereth and saith: —
2 I have often heard such things; you are all aggravating comforters.
I have heard many such things, Miserable comforters [are] ye all.
3 Will there be no end to windy words? Or is it at all a burden to you, if you speak?
Is there an end to words of wind? Or what doth embolden thee that thou answerest?
4 I, too, can speak like you; and I also wish that your soul favored my soul. I would also comfort you with speeches and would wag my head over 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 I would strengthen you with my mouth, and would move my lips, as if being lenient to you.
I might harden you with my mouth, And the moving of my lips might be sparing.
6 But what can I do? When I am speaking, my grief will not be quiet; and if I am quiet, it will not withdraw from me.
If I speak, my pain is not restrained, And I cease — what goeth from me?
7 But now my grief has crushed me, and all my limbs have been reduced to nothing.
Only, now, it hath wearied me; Thou hast desolated all my company,
8 My wrinkles bear witness against me, and a liar rises up against my face, contradicting me.
And Thou dost loathe me, For a witness it hath been, And rise up against me doth my failure, In my face it testifieth.
9 He has gathered together his fury towards me, and, threatening me, he has roared against me with his teeth; my enemy has beheld me with terrible eyes.
His anger hath torn, and he hateth me, He hath gnashed at me with his teeth, My adversary sharpeneth his eyes for me.
10 They have opened their mouths against me, and, reproaching me, they have struck me on the cheek; they are nourished by my sufferings.
They have gaped on me with their mouth, In reproach they have smitten my cheeks, Together against me they set themselves.
11 God has confined me with the immoral, and he has delivered me into the hands of the impious.
God shutteth me up unto the perverse, And to the hands of the wicked turneth me over.
12 I, who once was wealthy, am now crushed. He has grabbed me by my neck; he has broken me and has placed me before him as a sign.
At ease I have been, and he breaketh me, And he hath laid hold on my neck, And he breaketh me in pieces, And he raiseth me to him for a mark.
13 He has surrounded me with his lances. He has severely wounded my lower back, he has not been lenient, and he has poured out my organs upon the earth.
Go round against me do his archers. He splitteth my reins, and spareth not, He poureth out to the earth my gall.
14 He has cut me with wound after wound. He has rushed upon me like a giant.
He breaketh me — breach upon breach, He runneth upon me as a mighty one.
15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and I have covered my body with ashes.
Sackcloth I have sewed on my skin, And have rolled in the dust my horn.
16 My face is swollen from weeping, and my eyelids have dimmed my vision.
My face is foul with weeping, And on mine eyelids [is] death-shade.
17 These things I have endured without iniquity in my hand, while I held pure prayers before God.
Not for violence in my hands, And my prayer [is] pure.
18 O earth, do not conceal my blood, nor let my outcry find a hiding place in you.
O earth, do not thou cover my blood! And let there not be a place for my cry.
19 For behold, my witness is in heaven, and my confidante is on high.
Also, now, lo, in the heavens [is] my witness, And my testifier in the high places.
20 My friends are full of words; my eye rains tears upon God.
My interpreter [is] my friend, Unto God hath mine eye dropped:
21 And I wish that a man might be so judged before God, just as the son of man is judged with his assistant!
And he reasoneth for a man with God, And a son of man for his friend.
22 For behold, a few years pass by, and I am walking a path by which I will not return.
When a few years do come, Then a path I return not do I go.
