Job 16

Job

16Then Job replied:

²“I have heard many things like these;

you are miserable comforters,^l all of you!^m

³Will your long-winded speeches never end?ⁿ

What ails you that you keep on arguing?^o

⁴I also could speak like you,

if you were in my place;

I could make fine speeches against you

and shake my head^p at you.

⁵But my mouth would encourage you;

comfort^q from my lips would bring you relief.^r

⁶“Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;

and if I refrain, it does not go away.^s

⁷Surely, God, you have worn me out;^t

you have devastated my entire household.^u

⁸You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;

my gauntness^v rises up and testifies against me.^w

⁹God assails me and tears^x me in his anger^y

and gnashes his teeth at me;^z

my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.^a

¹⁰People open their mouths^b to jeer at me;^c

they strike my cheek^d in scorn

and unite together against me.^e

¹¹God has turned me over to the ungodly

and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.^f

¹²All was well with me, but he shattered me;

he seized me by the neck and crushed me.^g

He has made me his target;^h

¹³his archers surround me.ⁱ

Without pity, he pierces^j my kidneys

and spills my gall on the ground.

¹⁴Again and again^k he bursts upon me;

he rushes at me like a warrior.^l

¹⁵“I have sewed sackcloth^m over my skin

and buried my brow in the dust.ⁿ

¹⁶My face is red with weeping,^o

dark shadows ring my eyes;^p

¹⁷yet my hands have been free of violence^q

and my prayer is pure.^r

¹⁸“Earth, do not cover my blood;^s

may my cry^t never be laid to rest!^u

¹⁹Even now my witness^v is in heaven;^w

my advocate is on high.^x

²⁰My intercessor^y is my friend^az

as my eyes pour out^a tears^b to God;

²¹on behalf of a man he pleads^c with God

as one pleads for a friend.

²²“Only a few years will pass

before I take the path of no return.^d