Job 16–17

Chapter 16

¹And Job answered and said, ²I have heard many such things: grievous comforters are ye all. ³Shall words of wind have an end? or what provoketh thee that thou answerest? ⁴I also could speak as ye: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could join together words against you, and shake my head at you; ⁵But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips should assuage your pain.

⁶If I speak, my pain is not assuaged; and if I forbear, what am I eased? ⁷But now he hath made me weary; …thou hast made desolate all my family; ⁸Thou hast shrivelled me up! it is become a witness; and my leanness riseth up against me, it beareth witness to my face. ⁹His anger teareth and pursueth me; he gnasheth with his teeth against me; as mine adversary he sharpeneth his eyes at me. ¹⁰They gape upon me with their mouth; they smite my cheeks reproachfully; they range themselves together against me. ¹¹•God hath delivered me over to the iniquitous man, and hurled me into the hands of the wicked. ¹²I was at rest, but he hath shattered me; he hath taken me by the neck and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. ¹³His arrows encompass 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 mighty man. ¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and rolled 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 my blood, and let there be no place for my cry! ¹⁹Even now, behold, my Witness is in the heavens, and he that voucheth for me is in the heights. ²⁰My friends are my mockers; mine eye poureth out tears unto †God. ²¹Oh that there were arbitration for a man with †God, as a son of man for his friend! ²²For years few in number shall pass, —and I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Chapter 17

¹My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are mine. ²Are there not mockers around me? and doth not mine eye abide in their provocation? ³Lay down now a pledge, be thou surety for me with thyself: who is he that striketh hands with me? ⁴For thou hast hidden their heart from understanding; therefore thou wilt not exalt them. ⁵He that betrayeth friends for a prey—even the eyes of his children shall fail. ⁶And he hath made me a proverb of the peoples; and I am become one to be spit on in the face. ⁷And mine eye is dim by reason of grief, and all my members are as a shadow. ⁸Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall be stirred up against the ungodly; ⁹But the righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall increase in strength.

¹⁰But as for you all, pray come on again; and I shall not find one wise man among you. ¹¹My days are past, my purposes are broken off, the cherished thoughts of my heart. ¹²They change the night into day; the light they imagine near in presence of the darkness. ¹³If I wait, Sheol is my house; I spread my bed in the darkness: ¹⁴I cry to the grave, Thou art my father! to the worm, My mother, and my sister! ¹⁵And where is then my hope? yea, my hope, who shall see it? ¹⁶It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, when our rest shall be together in the dust.