Job 16

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

1 Then Job answered and said:

2 "I have heard *[ch. 12:3] many such things;

*[ch. 13:4]miserable comforters are you all.

3 Shall *[ch. 15:2]windy words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

4 I also could speak as you do,

if you were in my place;

I could join words together against you

and *2 Kgs. 19:21;Ps. 22:7;109:25;Isa. 37:22;Jer. 18:16;Lam. 2:15;Matt. 27:39;Mark 15:29shake my head at you.

5 I could strengthen you with my mouth,

and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

6 "If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,

and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

7 Surely now God has worn me out;

*[ch. 15:34]; See ch. 1:15-19he has*16:7 Hebrew you have; also verse 8 made desolate all my company.

8 And he has shriveled me up,

which is *ch. 10:17;[Ruth 1:21] a witness against me,

and my *[Ps. 109:24]leanness has risen up against me;

it testifies to my face.

9 He has *ch. 18:4;Hos. 6:1;Amos 1:11torn me in his wrath *ch. 30:21and hated me;

he has *Ps. 35:16;37:12;112:10;Lam. 2:16;Acts 7:54gnashed his teeth at me;

my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

10 Men have *Ps. 22:13gaped at me with their mouth;

they have *Ps. 3:7;Isa. 50:6;Lam. 3:30;Mic. 5:1;[1 Kgs. 22:24;Acts 23:2] struck me insolently on the cheek;

they *Ps. 35:15mass themselves together against me.

11 God gives me up to the ungodly

and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

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

he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

he set me up as his *Lam. 3:12;[ch. 7:20]target;

13 his *Jer. 50:29archers surround me.

He slashes open my kidneys *ch. 27:22and does not spare;

he *ch. 20:25;[Lam. 2:11]pours out my gall on the ground.

14 He breaks me with *ch. 30:14breach upon breach;

he *ch. 15:26runs upon me like a warrior.

15 I have sewed *See 2 Sam. 3:31sackcloth upon my skin

and have laid *[Ps. 75:10] my strength *[Ps. 7:5]in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping,

and on my eyelids is *See ch. 3:5deep darkness,

17 although there is no *Isa. 53:9violence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

18 "O earth, *Isa. 26:21;Ezek. 24:7cover not my blood,

and let my *[Gen. 4:10]cry find no resting place.

19 Even now, behold, my *Ps. 89:37;Rom. 1:9witness is in heaven,

and he who testifies for me is *[Ps. 148:1]on high.

20 My friends *[ch. 12:5]scorn me;

my eye pours out tears to God,

21 that he would *[ch. 31:35]argue the case of a man with God,

as*16:21 Hebrew and a son of man does with his neighbor.

22 For when a few years have come

I shall go the way *See ch. 10:21from which I shall not return.