Job 16

Job’s Reply

16Job replied,

²“I’ve heard many of those things before.

You are terrible at comforting me!

³Your speeches go on forever.

Won’t they ever end?

What’s wrong with you?

Why do you keep on arguing?

⁴If you and I changed places,

I could say the same things you are saying.

I could make fine speeches against you.

I could shake my head at you.

⁵But what I might say would give you hope.

My words of comfort would help you.

⁶“If I speak, it doesn’t help me.

And if I keep quiet, my pain doesn’t go away.

⁷God has worn me out completely.

He has destroyed my whole family.

⁸People can see the condition he has put me in.

My thin body stands as a witness against me.

⁹God is angry with me.

He attacks me and tears me up.

He grinds his teeth at me.

He stares at me as if he were my enemy.

¹⁰People make fun of me.

They slap my face and laugh at me.

All of them join together against me.

¹¹God has turned me over to sinful people.

He has handed me over to them.

¹²Everything was going well with me.

But he broke me into pieces like a clay pot.

He grabbed me by the neck and crushed me.

He has taken aim at me.

¹³He shoots his arrows at me from all sides.

Without pity, he stabs me in the kidneys.

He spills my insides on the ground.

¹⁴He smashes through me as if I were a wall.

He rushes at me like a fighting man.

¹⁵“I’ve sewed black cloth over my skin.

All I can do is sit here in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red from crying.

I have deep circles under my eyes.

¹⁷But I haven’t harmed anyone.

My prayers to God are pure.

¹⁸“Earth, please don’t cover up my blood!

May God always hear my cry for help!

¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven.

The one who speaks up for me is there.

²⁰My go-between is my friend

as I pour out my tears to God.

²¹He makes his appeal to God to help me

as a man begs someone to help his friend.

²²“Only a few years will pass by.

Then I’ll go on a journey I won’t return from.