Job 16:8–17:9

⁸You have shriveled me up^D—it has become a witness;

my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.

⁹His anger tears at me, and he harasses^a me.

He gnashes his teeth at me.

My enemy pierces me with his eyes.

¹⁰They open their mouths against me

and strike my cheeks with contempt;^b

they join themselves together against me.

¹¹God hands me over to the unjust;^E

he throws me to the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, but he shattered me;

he seized me by the scruff of the neck

and smashed me to pieces.

He set me up as his target;^c

¹³his archers^A surround me.

He pierces my kidneys without mercy

and pours my bile on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks through my defenses again and again;^B

he charges at me like a warrior.^d

¹⁵I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;

I have buried my strength^C in the dust.^e

¹⁶My face has grown red with weeping,

and darkness^f covers my eyes,

¹⁷although my hands are free from violence^g

and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸Earth, do not cover my blood;

may my cry for help find no resting place.^h

¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven,

and my advocate is in the heights!ⁱ

²⁰My friends scoff at me

as I weep before God.

²¹I wish that someone might argue for a man with God^j

just as anyone^D would for a friend.

²²For only a few years will pass

before I go the way of no return.

17My spirit is broken.

My days are extinguished.

A graveyard^k awaits me.

²Surely mockers surround^E me,

and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.^l

³Accept my pledge! Put up security for me.^m

Who else will be my sponsor?^F

⁴You have closed their minds to understanding,

therefore you will not honor them.

⁵If a man denounces his friends for a price,

the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶He has made me an object of scorn to the people;

I have become a man people spit at.^Gn

⁷My eyes have grown dim from grief,

and my whole body has become but a shadow.

⁸The upright are appalled^o at this,

and the innocent are roused against the godless.

⁹Yet the righteous person will hold to his way,

and the one whose hands are clean^p will grow stronger.