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.