Job 16

16Then Job answered and said,

²I have heard many such things:

Miserable comforters are ye all.

³Shall vain words have an end?

Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?

⁴I also could speak as ye do;

If your soul were in my soul’s stead,

I could join words together against you,

And shake my head at you.

⁵But I would strengthen you with my mouth,

And the solace of my lips would assuage your grief.

⁶Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged;

And though I forbear, what am I eased?

⁷But now he hath made me weary:

Thou hast made desolate all my company.

⁸And thou hast laid fast hold on me, which is a witness against me:

And my leanness riseth up against me,

It testifieth to my face.

⁹He hath torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me;

He hath gnashed upon me with his teeth:

Mine adversary sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

¹⁰They have gaped upon me with their mouth;

They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully:

They gather themselves together against me.

¹¹God delivereth me to the ungodly,

And casteth me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, and he brake me asunder;

Yea, he hath taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces:

He hath also set me up for his mark.

¹³His archers compass me round about;

He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare;

He poureth out my gall upon the ground.

¹⁴He breaketh me with breach upon breach;

He runneth upon me like a giant.

¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin,

And have laid my horn in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red with weeping,

And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

¹⁷Although there is no violence in my hands,

And my prayer is pure.

¹⁸O earth, cover not thou my blood,

And let my cry have no resting-place.

¹⁹Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

And he that voucheth for me is on high.

²⁰My friends scoff at me:

But mine eye poureth out tears unto God,

²¹That he would maintain the right of a man with God,

And of a son of man with his neighbor!

²²For when a few years are come,

I shall go the way whence I shall not return.