Job 16
1 Job replied [to Eliphaz and the others: ]
Then Job answered and said,
2 “I have heard things like that before; all of you, [instead of helping me, ] are only causing me to feel more miserable.
I have heard many such things: miserable comforters [are] ye all.
3 Will your speeches, which are only hot air, never end [RHQ]? Eliphaz, what bothers/irritates you so much that you continue replying to me?
Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
4 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].
I also could speak as ye [do]: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake my head at you.
5 But, [unlike all of you, ] with what I said [MTY] I would encourage you and try to cause your pain to be less.
[But] I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should assuage [your grief].
6 “But now, if I talk, my pain does not decrease, and if I am silent, my pain still certainly does not [RHQ] go away.
Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and [though] I forbear, what am I eased?
7 God has now taken away all my strength, and he has destroyed my family.
But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
8 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].
And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, [which] is a witness [against me]: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
9 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.
He teareth [me] in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; my enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
10 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.
They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves against me.
11 [It is as though] God has handed me over to ungodly people and turned me over to the wicked [DOU].
God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
12 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;
I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken [me] by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
13 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.
His archers encompass me; he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
14 [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].
He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
15 [“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.
I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
16 My face is red because I have cried very much, and there are dark circles around my eyes.
My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [are] the shades of death;
17 [All this has happened to me] even though I have not acted violently [toward anyone], and I [always] pray sincerely/honestly [to God].
Not for [any] injustice in my hands: also my prayer [is] pure.
18 [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.
O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
19 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.
Also now, behold, my witness [is] in heaven, and my record [is] on high.
20 My [three] friends scorn/ridicule me, but my eyes are full of tears [while I cry out] to God.
My friends scorn me: [but] my eye poureth out [tears] to God.
21 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.
O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man [pleadeth] for his neighbor!
22 [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.”
When a few years are come, then I shall go the way [whence] I shall not return.
