Job 16:8–17:9

⁸“You have shriveled me up,

^aIt has become a witness;

And my ^bleanness rises up against me,

It testifies to my face.

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

He has ^bgnashed at me with His teeth;

My ^cadversary ²glares at me.

¹⁰“They have ^agaped at me with their mouth,

They have ^1bslapped me on the cheek with contempt;

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 deep darkness is on my eyelids,

¹⁷Although 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 plead 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 Says He Has Become a Byword

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“Lay down, now, a pledge ^afor me with Yourself;

Who is there that will ¹be my guarantor?

⁴“For You have ^1akept their heart from understanding,

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 languish.

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 stronger and stronger.