Job 16

Job Reproaches His Pitiless Friends

1 Then Job answered and said:

2 "I have heard many such things;

*Job 13:4; 21:34Miserable comforters are you all!

3 Shall words of wind have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

4 I also could speak as you do,

If your soul were in my soul’s place.

I could heap up words against you,

And *Ps. 22:7; 109:25; Lam. 2:15; Zeph. 2:15; Matt. 27:39shake my head at you;

5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth,

And the comfort of my lips would relieve yourgrief.

6 "Though I speak, my grief is not relieved;

And if I remain silent, how am I eased?

7 But now He has *Job 7:3worn me out;

You *Job 16:20; 19:13–15have made desolate all my company.

8 You have shriveled me up,

And it is a *Job 10:17witness againstme;

My leanness rises up against me

And bears witness to my face.

9 *Job 10:16, 17; 19:11; Hos. 6:1He tears me in His wrath, and hates me;

He gnashes at me with His teeth;

*Job 13:24; 33:10My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.

10 They *Ps. 22:13; 35:21gape at me with their mouth,

They *Is. 50:6; Lam. 3:30; Mic. 5:1; Matt. 26:67; Mark 14:65; Luke 22:63; Acts 23:2strike me reproachfully on the cheek,

They gather together against me.

11 God *Job 1:15, 17has delivered me to the ungodly,

And turned me over to the hands of the wicked.

12 I was at ease, but He has *Job 9:17shattered me;

He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces;

He has *Job 7:20; Lam. 3:12set me up for His target,

13 His archers surround me.

He pierces my heart and does not pity;

He pours out my gall on the ground.

14 He breaks me with wound upon wound;

He runs at me like a warrior.

15 "I have sewn sackcloth over my skin,

And *Job 30:19; Ps. 7:5laid my head in the dust.

16 My face is flushed from weeping,

And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

17 Although no violence is in my hands,

And my prayer is pure.

18 "O earth, do not cover my blood,

And *Job 27:9; (Ps. 66:18)let my cry have no resting place!

19 Surely even now *Gen. 31:50; Rom. 1:9; Phil. 1:8; 1 Thess. 2:5my witness is in heaven,

And my evidence is on high.

20 My friends scorn me;

My eyes pour out tears to God.

21 *Job 31:35; Eccl. 6:10; (Is. 45:9; Rom. 9:20)Oh, that one might plead for a man with God,

As a man pleads for his neighbor!

22 For when a few years are finished,

I shall *Job 10:21; Eccl. 12:5go the way of no return.