< Job 16 >
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 “I have heard many such things; you are all miserable comforters.
3 Will useless words ever have an end? What is wrong with you that you answer like this?
4 I 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.
5 I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the quivering of my lips will bring you relief!
6 If I speak, my grief is not lessened; if I keep from speaking, how am I helped?
7 But now, God, you have made me weary; you have made all my family desolate.
8 You 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.
9 God 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.
10 People have gaped with open mouth at me; they have hit me reproachfully on the cheek; they have gathered together against me.
11 God hands me over to ungodly people, and throws me into the hands of wicked people.
12 I 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.
13 His archers surround me all around; God pierces my kidneys and does not spare me; he pours out my bile on the ground.
14 He smashes through my wall again and again; he runs upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewn sackcloth on my skin; I have thrust my horn into the ground.
16 My face is red with weeping; on my eyelids is the shadow of death
17 although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
18 Earth, do not cover up my blood; let my cry have no resting place.
19 Even now, see, my witness is in heaven; he who vouches for me is on high.
20 My friends scoff at me, but my eye pours out tears to God.
21 I ask for that witness in heaven to argue for this man with God as a man does with his neighbor!
22 For when a few years have passed, I will go to a place from where I will not return.
