Job 16

Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

1 Then Job answered:

2 I have heard many things like these.

You are all miserable comforters.  * 16:2 Jb 13:4; Ps 69:20; Ec 4:1

3 Is there no end to your empty  * 16:3 Lit windy; Jb 15:2,* 16:3 Jb 15:2  words?

What provokes you that you continue testifying?

4 If you were in my place I could also talk like you.

I could string words together against you

and shake my head at you.

5 Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,

and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.  * 16:5 Dt 3:28; Jb 4:4; Is 41:10

6 If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,

and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?

7 Surely he  * 16:7 Or it has now exhausted me.

You have devastated my entire family.

8 You have shriveled me up  * 16:8 Or have seized me; Hb obscure  — it has become a witness;

my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.

9 His anger tears at me, and he harasses  * 16:9 Gn 49:23; Jb 30:21; Ps 55:3  me.

He gnashes his teeth at me.

My enemy pierces me with his eyes.

10 They open their mouths against me

and strike my cheeks with contempt;  * 16:10 1Kg 22:24; Lm 3:30; Mc 5:1

they join themselves together against me.

11 God hands me over to the unjust;  * 16:11 LXX, Vg; MT reads to a boy

he throws me to the wicked.

12 I was at ease, but he shattered me;

he seized me by the scruff of the neck

and smashed me to pieces.

He set me up as his target;  * 16:12 Jb 7:20; Lm 3:12

13 his archers  * 16:13 Or arrows surround me.

He pierces my kidneys without mercy

and pours my bile on the ground.

14 He breaks through my defenses again and again;  * 16:14 Lit through me, breach on breach

he charges at me like a warrior.  * 16:14 Jb 30:14; Jl 2:7

15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;

I have buried my strength  * 16:15 Lit horn in the dust.  * 16:15 Jb 30:19; Ps 7:5; 75:10

16 My face has grown red with weeping,

and darkness  * 16:16 Ps 44:19; 107:10; Jr 13:16 covers my eyes,

17 although my hands are free from violence  * 16:17 Is 53:9; 59:6; Jnh 3:8

and my prayer is pure.

18 Earth, do not cover my blood;

may my cry for help find no resting place.  * 16:18 Gn 4:10; Is 26:21; Ezk 24:7–8

19 Even now my witness is in heaven,

and my advocate is in the heights!  * 16:19 Jb 22:12; Rm 1:9; 1Th 2:5

20 My friends scoff at me

as I weep before God.

21 I wish that someone might argue for a man with God  * 16:21 Jb 31:35; Ec 6:10; Is 45:9

just as anyone  * 16:21 Lit a son of man would for a friend.

22 For only a few years will pass

before I go the way of no return.