Job 16–17

Job Answers Eliphaz

16Then Job answered:

²“I have heard many things like these.

You are all painful comforters!

³Will your long-winded speeches never end?

What makes you keep on arguing?

⁴I also could speak as you do

if you were in my place.

I could make great speeches against you

and shake my head at you.

⁵But, instead, I would encourage you,

and my words would bring you relief.

⁶“Even if I speak, my pain is not less,

and if I don’t speak, it still does not go away.

⁷God, you have surely taken away my strength

and destroyed my whole family.

⁸You have made me thin and weak,

and this shows I have done wrong.

⁹God attacks me and tears me with anger;

he grinds his teeth at me;

my enemy stares at me with his angry eyes.

¹⁰People open their mouths to make fun of me

and hit my cheeks to insult me.

They join together against me.

¹¹God has turned me over to evil people

and has handed me over to the wicked.

¹²Everything was fine with me,

but God broke me into pieces;

he held me by the neck and crushed me.

He has made me his target;

¹³his archers surround me.

He stabs my kidneys without mercy;

he spills my blood on the ground.

¹⁴Again and again God attacks me;

he runs at me like a soldier.

¹⁵“I have sewed rough cloth over my skin to show my sadness

and have buried my face in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red from crying;

I have dark circles around my eyes.

¹⁷Yet my hands have never done anything cruel,

and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸“Earth, please do not cover up my blood.

Don’t let my cry ever stop being heard!

¹⁹Even now I have one who speaks for me in heaven;

the one who is on my side is high above.

²⁰The one who speaks for me is my friend.

My eyes pour out tears to God.

²¹He begs God on behalf of a human

as a person begs for his friend.

²²“Only a few years will pass

before I go on the journey of no return.

17My spirit is broken;

the days of my life are almost gone.

The grave is waiting for me.

²Those who laugh at me surround me;

I watch them insult me.

³“God, make me a promise.

No one will make a pledge for me.

⁴You have closed their minds to understanding.

Do not let them win over me.

⁵People might speak against their friends for money,

but if they do, the eyes of their children go blind.

⁶“God has made my name a curse word;

people spit in my face.

⁷My sight has grown weak because of my sadness,

and my body is as thin as a shadow.

⁸Honest people are upset about this;

innocent people are upset with those who do wrong.

⁹But those who do right will continue to do right,

and those whose hands are not dirty with sin will grow stronger.

¹⁰“But, all of you, come and try again!

I do not find a wise person among you.

¹¹My days are gone, and my plans have been destroyed,

along with the desires of my heart.

¹²These men think night is day;

when it is dark, they say, ‘Light is near.’

¹³If the only home I hope for is the grave,

if I spread out my bed in darkness,

¹⁴if I say to the grave, ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘You are my mother’ or ‘You are my sister,’

¹⁵where, then, is my hope?

Who can see any hope for me?

¹⁶Will hope go down to the gates of death?

Will we go down together into the dust?”