Job 16
1 Then responded Job, and said: —
Then Job, answering, said:
2 I have heard many such things, Wearisome comforters, are ye all!
I have often heard such things; you are all aggravating comforters.
3 Is there to be an end to windy words? Or what so strongly exciteth thee, that thou must respond?
Will there be no end to windy words? Or is it at all a burden to you, if you speak?
4 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.
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.
5 I could make you determined, by my mouth, and then my lip-solace should restrain you.
I would strengthen you with my mouth, and would move my lips, as if being lenient to you.
6 Though I do speak, unassuaged is my stinging pain, —And, if I forbear, of what am I relieved?
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.
7 But, now, hath he wearied me, thou hast destroyed all my family;
But now my grief has crushed me, and all my limbs have been reduced to nothing.
8 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.
My wrinkles bear witness against me, and a liar rises up against my face, contradicting me.
9 His anger, hath torn and persecuted me, He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth, Mine adversary, hath sharpened his eyes for me.
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.
10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth, With reproach, have they smitten my cheek, Together, against me, have they closed their ranks.
They have opened their mouths against me, and, reproaching me, they have struck me on the cheek; they are nourished by my sufferings.
11 GOD doth abandon me to him that is perverse, and, into the hands of the lawless, he throweth me headlong.
God has confined me with the immoral, and he has delivered me into the hands of the impious.
12 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:
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.
13 His archers came round against me, He clave asunder my reins, and spared not, He poured out, on the earth, my gall:
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.
14 He made a breach in me, breach upon breach, He ran upon me, like a mighty man.
He has cut me with wound after wound. He has rushed upon me like a giant.
15 Sackcloth, sewed I on my skin, and rolled—in the dust—my horn:
I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and I have covered my body with ashes.
16 My face, is reddened from weeping, and, upon mine eyelashes, is the death-shade: —
My face is swollen from weeping, and my eyelids have dimmed my vision.
17 Though no violence was in my hands, and, my prayer, was pure.
These things I have endured without iniquity in my hand, while I held pure prayers before God.
18 O earth! do not cover my blood, and let there be no place for mine outcry.
O earth, do not conceal my blood, nor let my outcry find a hiding place in you.
19 Even now, lo! in the heavens, is my witness,
For behold, my witness is in heaven, and my confidante is on high.
20 And, he that voucheth for me is on high. My friends are, they who scorn me, Unto GOD, hath mine eye shed tears: —
My friends are full of words; my eye rains tears upon God.
21 That one might plead, for a man, with GOD, —Even a son of man, for his friend!
And I wish that a man might be so judged before God, just as the son of man is judged with his assistant!
22 When, a few years, come, then, by a path by which I shall not return, shall I depart.
For behold, a few years pass by, and I am walking a path by which I will not return.
