Job 16-17

New International Version - UK

² ‘I have heard many things like these;
    you are miserable comforters, all of you!
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, God, you have worn me out;
    you have devastated my entire household.
⁸ You have shrivelled me up – 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 People 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 the ungodly
    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,
    dark shadows ring my eyes;
¹⁷ yet my hands have been free of violence
    and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ ‘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^[a]
    as my eyes pour out tears to God;
²¹ on behalf of a man he pleads with God
    as one pleads for a friend.

²² ‘Only a few years will pass
    before I take the path of no return.
17 My spirit is broken,
    my days are cut short,
    the grave awaits me.
² Surely mockers surround me;
    my eyes must dwell on their hostility.

³ ‘Give me, O God, the pledge you demand.
    Who else will put up security for me?
⁴ You have closed their minds to understanding;
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵ If anyone denounces their friends for reward,
    the eyes of their children will fail.

⁶ ‘God has made me a byword to everyone,
    a man in whose face people spit.
⁷ My eyes have grown dim with grief;
    my whole frame is but a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled at this;
    the innocent are aroused against the ungodly.
⁹ Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways,
    and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

¹⁰ ‘But come on, all of you, try again!
    I will not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days have passed, my plans are shattered.
    Yet the desires of my heart
¹² turn night into day;
    in the face of the darkness light is near.
¹³ If the only home I hope for is the grave,
    if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to corruption, “You are my father,”
    and to the worm, “My mother” or “My sister”.
¹⁵ where then is my hope –
    who can see any hope for me?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the gates of death?
    Will we descend together into the dust?’