Job 16

1 Job replied [to Eliphaz and the others: ]

And Job answers and says:

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 such things, 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 an end to words of wind? Or what emboldens you that you answer?

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

I might harden you with my mouth, And the moving of my lips might be sparing.

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.

If I speak, my pain is not restrained, And I cease—what goes from me?

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

Only, now, it has wearied me; You have desolated all my company,

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].

And You loathe me, For it has been a witness, And my failure rises up against me, It testifies in my face.

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, and He hates me, He has gnashed at me with His teeth, My adversary sharpens His eyes for me.

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 have gaped on me with their mouth, In reproach they have struck my cheeks, Together they set themselves against me.

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

God shuts me up to the perverse, And turns me over to the hands 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 have been at ease, and He breaks me, And He has laid hold on my neck, And He breaks me in pieces, And He raises me to Him for a mark.

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 go around against me. He split my reins, and does not spare, He pours out my gall to the earth.

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—breach on breach, He runs on me as a mighty one.

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 sewed sackcloth on my skin, And have rolled 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 foul with weeping, And on my eyelids [is] death-shade.

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

Not for violence in my hands, 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! And let there not be a place for my cry.

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.

Also, now, behold, my witness [is] in the heavens, And my testifier in the high places.

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

My interpreter [is] my friend, My eye has dropped 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.

And He reasons for a man with God, As a son of man for his friend.

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.”

When a few years come, Then I go [on] the path of no return.”