Job 16

1Then Job answered and said,

2“I have heard many such things;

you are all miserable comforters.

3Will useless words ever have an end?

What is wrong with you that you answer like this?

4I also could speak as you do,

if you were in my place;

I could collect and join words together against you

and shake my head at you in mockery.

5I would strengthen you with my mouth,

and the quivering of my lips will bring you relief!

6If I speak, my grief is not lessened;

if I keep from speaking, how am I helped?

7But now, God, you have made me weary;

you have made all my family desolate.

8You have made me dry up, which itself is a witness against me;

the leanness of my body rises up against me,

and it testifies against my face.

9God has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me;

He grinds his teeth in rage;

my enemy fastens his eyes on me as he tears me apart.

10People have gaped with open mouth at me;

they have hit me reproachfully on the cheek;

they have gathered together against me.

11God hands me over to ungodly people,

and throws me into the hands of wicked people.

12I was at ease, and he broke me apart.

Indeed, he has taken me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

he has also set me up as his target.

13His archers surround me all around;

God pierces my kidneys and does not spare me;

he pours out my bile on the ground.

14He smashes through my wall again and again;

he runs upon me like a warrior.

15I have sewn sackcloth on my skin;

I have thrust my horn into the ground.

16My face is red with weeping;

on my eyelids is the shadow of death

17although there is no violence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

18Earth, do not cover up my blood;

let my cry have no resting place.

19Even now, see, my witness is in heaven;

he who vouches for me is on high.

20My friends scoff at me,

but my eye pours out tears to God.

21I ask for that witness in heaven to argue for this man with God

as a man does with his neighbor!

22For when a few years have passed,

I will go to a place from where I will not return.