Job 16:8–17:9

⁸“You have shriveled me up,

^aIt has become a witness;

And my ^bleanness rises up against me,

It answers to my face.

⁹“His anger has ^atorn me and ¹hunted me down;

He has ^bgnashed at me with His teeth;

My ^cadversary sharpens his eyes to look at me.

¹⁰“They have ^aopened their mouth wide at me;

They have ^bstruck me on the cheek in reproach;

They have ^cmassed themselves against me.

¹¹“God hands me over to ruffians

And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²“I was at ease, but ^aHe shattered me,

And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;

He has also set me up as His ^btarget.

¹³“His ^aarrows surround me.

Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;

He pours out ^bmy gall on the ground.

¹⁴“He ^abreaks through me with breach after breach;

He ^bruns at me like a warrior.

¹⁵“I have sewed ^asackcloth over my skin

And ^bthrust my horn in the dust.

¹⁶“My face is flushed from ^aweeping,

^bAnd the shadow of death is on my eyelids,

¹⁷Why?—because there is no ^aviolence in my hands,

And ^bmy prayer is pure.

¹⁸“O earth, do not cover my blood,

And let there be no resting place for my cry.

¹⁹“Even now, behold, ^amy witness is in heaven,

And my ¹advocate is ^bon high.

²⁰“My friends are my scoffers;

^aMy eye ¹weeps to God.

²¹“O that a man might argue with God

As a man with his neighbor!

²²“For when a few years are past,

I shall go the way ^aof no return.

CHAPTER 17

Job Seeks Hope

¹“My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished;

The ^1agrave is ready for me.

²“^aSurely mockers are with me,

And my eye ¹gazes on their provocation.

³“Establish, now, a pledge ^afor me with Yourself;

Who is there that will clap my hand in pledge?

⁴“For You have ^ahidden their heart from insight,

Therefore You will not exalt them.

⁵“He who ^ainforms against friends for a share of the spoil,

The ^beyes of his children also will come to an end.

⁶“But He has made me a ^abyword of the people,

And I am ¹one at whom men ^bspit.

⁷“My eye has also grown ^adim because of grief,

And all my ^bmembers are as a shadow.

⁸“The upright will be appalled at this,

And the ^ainnocent will stir up himself against the godless.

⁹“Nevertheless ^athe righteous will hold to his way,

And ^bhe who has clean hands will grow mightier and mightier.