Job 16
1 Job replied [to Eliphaz and the others: ]
Then responded Job, and said: —
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, Wearisome comforters, are ye 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 to be an end to windy words? Or what so strongly exciteth thee, that thou must respond?
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, 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.
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 could make you determined, by my mouth, and then my lip-solace should restrain you.
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.
Though I do speak, unassuaged is my stinging pain, —And, if I forbear, of what am I relieved?
7 God has now taken away all my strength, and he has destroyed my family.
But, now, hath he wearied me, thou hast destroyed 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].
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.
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, hath torn and persecuted me, He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth, Mine adversary, hath sharpened 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 upon me with their mouth, With reproach, have they smitten my cheek, Together, against me, have they closed their ranks.
11 [It is as though] God has handed me over to ungodly people and turned me over to the wicked [DOU].
GOD doth abandon me to him that is perverse, and, into the hands of the lawless, he throweth me headlong.
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;
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:
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 came round against me, He clave asunder my reins, and spared not, He poured out, on the earth, my gall:
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 made a breach in me, breach upon breach, He ran upon me, like a mighty man.
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.
Sackcloth, sewed I on my skin, and rolled—in the dust—my horn:
16 My face is red because I have cried very much, and there are dark circles around my eyes.
My face, is reddened from weeping, and, upon mine eyelashes, is the 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].
Though no violence was in my hands, and, my prayer, was 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 be no place for mine outcry.
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, lo! in the heavens, is my witness,
20 My [three] friends scorn/ridicule me, but my eyes are full of tears [while I cry out] to God.
And, he that voucheth for me is on high. My friends are, they who scorn me, Unto GOD, hath mine eye shed tears: —
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.
That one might plead, for a man, with GOD, —Even 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, by a path by which I shall not return, shall I depart.
