Job 16

1 Bvt Iob answered, and said,

Job replied [to Eliphaz and the others: ]

2 I haue oft times heard such things: miserable comforters are ye all.

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

3 Shall there be none ende of wordes of winde? or what maketh thee bold so to answere?

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 could also speake as yee doe: (but woulde God your soule were in my soules stead) I could keepe you company in speaking, and could shake mine 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 But I woulde strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips should asswage your sorowe.

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

6 Though I speake, my sorow can not be asswaged: though I cease, what release haue I?

“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 hee maketh mee wearie: O God, thou hast made all my congregation desolate,

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

8 And hast made me full of wrinkles which is a witnesse thereof, and my leannes ryseth vp in me, testifying the same in 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 His wrath hath torne me, and hee hateth me, and gnasheth vpon mee with his teeth: mine enemie hath sharpened his eyes against 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 They haue opened their mouthes vpon me, and smitten me on the cheeke in reproch; they gather themselues together against me.

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 God hath deliuered me to the vniust, and hath made mee to turne out of the way by the hands of the wicked.

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

12 I was in welth, but he hath brought me to nought: he hath taken me by the necke, and beaten me, and set me as a marke for himselfe.

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 His archers compasse mee rounde about: he cutteth my reines, and doth not spare, and powreth my gall vpon 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 He hath broken me with one breaking vpon another, and runneth vpon me like a gyant.

[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 I haue sowed a sackcloth vpon my skinne, and haue abased mine horne vnto the dust.

[“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 face is withered with weeping, and the shadow of death is vpon mine eyes,

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

17 Though there be no wickednesse in mine hands, and my prayer be 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 O earth, couer not thou my blood, and let my crying finde 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 For lo, now my witnesse is in the heauen, and my record is on hie.

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 My friends speake eloquently against me: but mine eye powreth out teares vnto God.

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 pleade with God, as 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 For the yeeres accounted come, and I shall go the way, whence I shall not returne.

[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.”