Job 16

¹Then Job answered and said:

²“I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all!

³Shall words of wind have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

⁴I also could speak as you do, If your soul were in my soul’s place. I could heap up words against you, And shake my head at you;

⁵But I would strengthen you with my mouth, And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.

⁶“Though I speak, my grief is not relieved; And if I remain silent, how am I eased?

⁷But now He has worn me out; You have made desolate all my company.

⁸You have shriveled me up, And it is a witness against me; My leanness rises up against me And bears witness to my face.

⁹He tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.

¹⁰They gape at me with their mouth, They strike me reproachfully on the cheek, They gather together against me.

¹¹God has delivered me to the ungodly, And turned me over to the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, but He has shattered me; He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces; He has set me up for His target,

¹³His archers surround me. He pierces my heart and does not pity; He pours out my gall on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks me with wound upon wound; He runs at me like a warrior.

¹⁵“I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, And laid my head in the dust.

¹⁶My face is flushed from weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

¹⁷Although no violence is in my hands, And my prayer is pure.

¹⁸“O earth, do not cover my blood, And let my cry have no resting place!

¹⁹Surely even now my witness is in heaven, And my evidence is on high.

²⁰My friends scorn me; My eyes pour out tears to God.

²¹Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, As a man pleads for his neighbor!

²²For when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return.