Job 16

Chapter 16

Job’s Fifth Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

1 Then Job spoke again:
2 “I have heard all this before.
What miserable comforters you are!3 Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air?
What makes you keep on talking?4 I could say the same things if you were in my place.
I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.5 But if it were me, I would encourage you.
I would try to take away your grief.6 Instead, I suffer if I defend myself,
and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.7 “O God, you have ground me down
and devastated my family.8 As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones.
My gaunt flesh testifies against me.9 God hates me and angrily tears me apart.
He snaps his teeth at me
and pierces me with his eyes.10 People jeer and laugh at me.
They slap my cheek in contempt.
A mob gathers against me.11 God has handed me over to sinners.
He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.12 “I was living quietly until he shattered me.
He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces.
Then he set me up as his target,13 and now his archers surround me.
His arrows pierce me without mercy.
The ground is wet with my blood.t14 Again and again he smashes against me,
charging at me like a warrior.15 I wear burlap to show my grief.
My pride lies in the dust.16 My eyes are red with weeping;
dark shadows circle my eyes.17 Yet I have done no wrong,
and my prayer is pure.18 “O earth, do not conceal my blood.
Let it cry out on my behalf.19 Even now my witness is in heaven.
My advocate is there on high.20 My friends scorn me,
but I pour out my tears to God.21 I need someone to mediate between God and me,
as a person mediates between friends.22 For soon I must go down that road
from which I will never 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.