Job 16

Job

1 Then Job replied:

2 “I have heard many things like these;
miserable comforters are you all!

3 Will your long-winded speeches never end?
What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4 I also could speak like you,
if you were in my place;
I could make fine speeches against you
and shake my head at you.

5 But my mouth would encourage you;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

6 “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I refrain, it does not go away.

7 Surely, O God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.

8 You have bound me—and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

9 God assails me and tears me in his anger
and gnashes his teeth at me;
my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

10 Men open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.

11 God has turned me over to evil men
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

12 All was well with me, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;

13 his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.

14 Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.

15 “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
and buried my brow in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping,
deep shadows ring my eyes;

17 yet my hands have been free of violence
and my prayer is pure.

18 “O earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!

19 Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.

20 My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;

21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as a man pleads for his friend.

22 “Only a few years will pass
before I go on the journey of no return.

JOB 16

Job's Reply to Eliphaz

I Have Often Heard This

1 Job said:

2 I have often heard this,
and it offers no comfort.

3 So why don't you keep quiet?
What's bothering you?

4 If I were in your place,
it would be easy to criticize
or to give advice.

5 But I would offer hope
and comfort instead.

6 If I speak, or if I don't,
I hurt all the same.
My torment continues.

7 God has worn me down
and destroyed my family;

8 my shriveled up skin proves
that I am his prisoner.

9 God is my hateful enemy,
glaring at me and attacking
with his sharp teeth.

10 Everyone is against me;
they sneer and slap my face.

11 And God is the one
who handed me over
to this merciless mob.

Everything Was Going Well

12 Everything was going well,
until God grabbed my neck
and shook me to pieces.
God set me up as the target

13 for his arrows,
and without showing mercy,
he slashed my stomach open,
spilling out my insides.

14 God never stops attacking,

15 and so, in my sorrow
I dress in sackclotht
and sit in the dust.

16 My face is red with tears,
and dark shadows
circle my eyes,

17 though I am not violent,
and my prayers are sincere.

18 If I should die,
I beg the earth not to cover
my cry for justice.

19  t Even now, God in heaven
is both my witness
and my protector.

20 My friends have rejected me,
but God is the one I begt

21 to show that I am right,
just as a friend should.

22 Because in only a few years,
I will be dead and gone.