Job 16:6–17

⁶If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,

and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?

⁷Surely he^C has now exhausted me.

You have devastated my entire family.

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.