1Job replied,2‘I’ve heard many of these things before. All of you are terrible at comforting me!3Your speeches go on for ever. Won’t they ever end? What’s wrong with you? Why do you keep on arguing?4If you and I changed places, I could say the same things you are saying. I could make fine speeches against you. I could shake my head at you.5But what I might say would give you hope. My words of comfort would help you.6‘If I speak, it doesn’t help me. And if I keep quiet, my pain doesn’t go away.7God has worn me out completely. He has destroyed my whole family.8People can see the condition he has put me in. My thin body stands as a witness against me.9God is angry with me. He attacks me and tears me up. He grinds his teeth at me. He stares at me as if he were my enemy.10People make fun of me. They slap my face and laugh at me. All of them join together against me.11God has turned me over to sinful people. He has handed me over to them.12Everything was going well with me. But he broke me into pieces like a clay pot. He grabbed me by the neck and crushed me. He has taken aim at me.13He shoots his arrows at me from all sides. Without pity, he stabs me in the kidneys. He spills my insides on the ground.14He smashes through me as if I were a wall. He rushes at me like a fighting man.15‘I’ve sewed rough clothing over my skin. All I can do is sit here in the dust.16My face is red from crying. I have dark circles under my eyes.17But I haven’t harmed anyone. My prayers to God are pure.18‘Earth, please don’t cover up my blood! May God always hear my cry for help!19Even now my witness is in heaven. The one who speaks up for me is there.20My go-between is my friend as I pour out my tears to God.21He makes his appeal to God to help me as a person pleads for a friend.22‘Only a few years will pass by. Then I’ll take the path of no return.
Job 16
English Standard Version
Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You
1Then Job answered and said:2“I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. (Job 12:3; Job 13:4)3Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? (Job 15:2)4I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. (2Ki 19:21; Ps 22:7; Ps 109:25; Isa 37:22; Jer 18:16; La 2:15; Mt 27:39; Mr 15:29)5I 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?7Surely now God has worn me out; he has[1] made desolate all my company. (Job 1:15; Job 15:34)8And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face. (Ru 1:21; Job 10:17; Ps 109:24)9He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. (Job 18:4; Job 30:21; Ps 35:16; Ps 37:12; Ps 112:10; La 2:16; Ho 6:1; Am 1:11; Ac 7:54)10Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. (1Ki 22:24; Ps 3:7; Ps 22:13; Ps 35:15; Isa 50:6; La 3:30; Mic 5:1; Ac 23:2)11God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked.12I 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 target; (Job 7:20; La 3:12)13his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. (Job 20:25; Job 27:22; Jer 50:29; La 2:11)14He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. (Job 15:26; Job 30:14)15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. (2Sa 3:31; Ps 7:5; Ps 75:10)16My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, (Job 3:5)17although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. (Isa 53:9)18“O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. (Ge 4:10; Isa 26:21; Eze 24:7)19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. (Ps 89:37; Ps 148:1; Ro 1:9)20My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, (Job 12:5)21that he would argue the case of a man with God, as[2] a son of man does with his neighbor. (Job 31:35)22For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return. (Job 10:21)