Job 16

1 Then Job answered,

Job replied [to Eliphaz and the others: ]

2 “I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!

“I have heard things like that before; all of you, [instead of helping me, ] are only causing me to feel more miserable.

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

Will your speeches, which are only hot air, never end [RHQ]? Eliphaz, what bothers/irritates you so much that you continue replying to me?

4 I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

If it were you [three and not I] who were suffering, I could say the things that you are saying; I could make great speeches [to criticize/condemn you], and I could shake my head at you [to ridicule you].

5 but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.

But, [unlike all of you, ] with what I said [MTY] I would encourage you and try to cause your pain to be less.

6 “Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?

“But now, if I talk, my pain does not decrease, and if I am silent, my pain still certainly does not [RHQ] go away.

7 But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made all my company desolate.

God has now taken away all my strength, and he has destroyed my family.

8 You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.

He has shriveled me up, and people think that shows that I [am a sinner]. And people see that I am only skin and bones, and they think that proves that I [am guilty].

9 He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.

Because God is very angry with me and hates me, [it is as though he is a wild animal that] [MET] has gnashed his teeth at me because he is my enemy.

10 They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.

People gape/stare at me with their mouths open [to sneer at me]; they have struck me on the face/cheek to ridicule me, and they crowd around me to threaten me.

11 God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

[It is as though] God has handed me over to ungodly people and turned me over to the wicked [DOU].

12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.

Previously, I was living peacefully, but he crushed me; [it is as though] he grabbed my neck and smashed me to pieces. [It is as though] [MET] he set me up like a target;

13 His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my bile on the ground.

people are surrounding me [and shooting arrows at me]. His arrows pierce my kidneys and cause the bile [from my liver] to spill onto the ground, and God does not pity me at all.

14 He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs at me like a giant.

[It is as though] [MET] I am a wall that he is breaking through; he rushes at me like [SIM] a soldier [attacking his enemies].

15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust.

[“Because I am mourning, ] I wear pieces of rough cloth that I have sewed together, and I sit [here] in the dirt, very depressed/discouraged.

16 My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids,

My face is red because I have cried very much, and there are dark circles around my eyes.

17 although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

[All this has happened to me] even though I have not acted violently [toward anyone], and I [always] pray sincerely/honestly [to God].

18 “Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.

[When I die, ] I want the ground [APO] to [act as though I had been murdered and] cry out against those who killed me, and I do not want anyone to stop me while I am demanding [that God act justly toward] me.

19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.

But even now, [I know that] there is someone in heaven who will testify for me, and he will say that what I have done is right.

20 My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,

My [three] friends scorn/ridicule me, but my eyes are full of tears [while I cry out] to God.

21 that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!

I pray that [the] one [who knows what I have done] would come to plead with God for me like people plead for their friends.

22 For when a few years have come, I will go the way of no return.

[I say this because] within a few years [I will die]; I will walk along the [to the grave] from which I will never return.”