Job 16

1 Then Job answered and said,

Job replied [to Eliphaz and the others: ]

2 I have heard many 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 vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

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 could speak as ye [do: ] if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and 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 would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage [your grief].

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 speak, my grief is not asswaged: and [though] I forbear, what am I eased?

“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 hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.

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

8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, [which] is a witness [against me: ] and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness 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 He teareth [me] in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes 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 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves 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 delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into 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 at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken [me] by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his 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 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth 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 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.

[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 have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in 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 foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death;

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

17 Not for [any] injustice in mine hands: also 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 O earth, cover not thou my blood, 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 Also now, behold, my witness [is] in heaven, and my record [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 My friends scorn me: [but] mine eye poureth out [tears] unto God.

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

21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man [pleadeth] for 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 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way [whence] 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.”