Job 16:8–17:9

⁸And he has shriveled me up,

which is ^ja witness against me,

and my ^kleanness has risen up against me;

it testifies to my face.

⁹He has ^ltorn me in his wrath ^mand hated me;

he has ⁿgnashed his teeth at me;

my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

¹⁰Men have ^ogaped at me with their mouth;

they have ^pstruck me insolently on the cheek;

they ^qmass themselves together against me.

¹¹God gives me up to the ungodly

and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, and he broke me apart;

he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

he set me up as his ^rtarget;

¹³his ^sarchers surround me.

He slashes open my kidneys ^tand does not spare;

he ^upours out my gall on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks me with ^vbreach upon breach;

he ^wruns upon me like a warrior.

¹⁵I have sewed ^xsackcloth upon my skin

and have laid ^ymy strength ^zin the dust.

¹⁶My face is red with weeping,

and on my eyelids is ^adeep darkness,

¹⁷although there is no ^bviolence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸“O earth, ^ccover not my blood,

and let my ^dcry find no resting place.

¹⁹Even now, behold, my ^ewitness is in heaven,

and he who testifies for me is ^fon high.

²⁰My friends ^gscorn me;

my eye pours out tears to God,

²¹that he would ^hargue the case of a man with God,

as² a son of man does with his neighbor.

²²For when a few years have come

I shall go the way ⁱfrom which I shall not return.

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

17“My spirit is broken; my days are ^jextinct;

^kthe graveyard is ready for me.

²Surely there are mockers about me,

and my eye dwells on their ^lprovocation.

³“Lay down a pledge for me with you;

who is there who will put up ^msecurity for me?

⁴Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,

therefore you will not let them triumph.

⁵He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—

the ⁿeyes of his children will fail.

⁶“He has made me ^oa byword of the peoples,

and I am one before whom men spit.

⁷My ^peye has grown dim from vexation,

and all my members are like ^qa shadow.

⁸The upright are ^rappalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

⁹Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and he who has ^sclean hands grows stronger and stronger.