Hiob 16 | New International Reader’s Version

Job’s reply

1 Job replied, 2 ‘I’ve heard many of these things before. All of you are terrible at comforting me! 3 Your speeches go on for ever. Won’t they ever end? What’s wrong with you? Why do you keep on arguing? 4 If 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. 5 But 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. 7 God has worn me out completely. He has destroyed my whole family. 8 People can see the condition he has put me in. My thin body stands as a witness against me. 9 God 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. 10 People make fun of me. They slap my face and laugh at me. All of them join together against me. 11 God has turned me over to sinful people. He has handed me over to them. 12 Everything 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. 13 He shoots his arrows at me from all sides. Without pity, he stabs me in the kidneys. He spills my insides on the ground. 14 He 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. 16 My face is red from crying. I have dark circles under my eyes. 17 But 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! 19 Even now my witness is in heaven. The one who speaks up for me is there. 20 My go-between is my friend as I pour out my tears to God. 21 He 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.

English Standard Version

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

1 Then Job answered and said: 2 “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. 3 Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? 4 I 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. 5 I 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? 7 Surely now God has worn me out; he has* made desolate all my company. 8 And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face. 9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. 10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. 11 God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. 12 I 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; 13 his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. 14 He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. 15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. 16 My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, 17 although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. 18 “O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. 19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. 20 My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, 21 that he would argue the case of a man with God, as* a son of man does with his neighbor. 22 For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

Hiob 16 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version

Job’s reply

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You