16:1 Then Job replied:
16:2 “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all!
16:3 Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?
16:4 I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.
16:5 But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
16:6 “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.
16:7 Surely, O God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.
16:8 You have bound me–and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
16:9 God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
16:10 Men open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.
16:11 God has turned me over to evil men and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
16:12 All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;
16:13 his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
16:14 Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.
16:15 “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.
16:16 My face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes;
16:17 yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
16:18 “O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!
16:19 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
16:20 My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;
16:21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.
16:22 “Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return.
16:1 Then Job answered and said,
16:2 I have heard many such things; / Troubling comforters are you all.
16:3 Do words of wind have an end? / Or what has provoked you that you so respond?
16:4 I also could speak like you, / If your soul were in my soul’s stead; / I could join my words together against you / And shake my head at you.
16:5 I could strengthen you with my mouth, / And the movement of my lips would mitigate your pain.
16:6 If I speak, my pain is not mitigated; / And if I forbear, how much departs from me?
16:7 But now He has worn me out; / You have desolated all my company.
16:8 And You have seized me; it is a testimony against me; / And my leanness rises up against me; it testifies to my face.
16:9 In His wrath He has torn me to pieces and been adverse toward me; / He has gnashed His teeth at me. / My Adversary sharpens His eyes at me.
16:10 With their mouth they gape at me; / They strike my cheek reproachfully; / They mass themselves together against me.
16:11 God has delivered me over to the unjust / And cast me down into the hands of the wicked.
16:12 I was at ease, and He broke me apart; / Indeed He took me by my neck and dashed me to pieces. / And He set me up as His target;
16:13 His archers surrounded me; / He split open my kidneys and did not desist; / He poured out my gall upon the earth.
16:14 He broke me open with breach upon breach; / He ran at me like a mighty man of war.
16:15 I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin / And have cast my horn into the dust.
16:16 My face is reddened with weeping, / And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
16:17 Though there is no violence in my hands, / And my prayer is pure.
16:18 O earth, do not cover my blood; / And let there be no resting place for my crying out.
16:19 Even now, there in heaven is my Witness, / And He who vouches for me is in the heights.
16:20 My friends deride me; / My eye pours out tears to God,
16:21 That He would plead for a man in his case with God / And for a son of man in his case with his neighbor.
16:22 For when years few in number have come, / I will go the way from which I cannot return.
