Job 16

1 Job replied [to Eliphaz and the others: ]

Then Job answered:

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

“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.

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

Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?

4 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].

I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

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

But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

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

Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?

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

Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.

8 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].

You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

9 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.

His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

10 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.

They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.

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

God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.

12 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;

I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;

13 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.

His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.

14 [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].

He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.

15 [“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.

I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.

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

My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;

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

yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.

18 [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.

O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.

19 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.

Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.

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

My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.

21 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.

Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!

22 [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.”

For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.