Job 16
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 16
Job’s Fourth Reply. 1 Then Job answered and said:
2 I have heard this sort of thing many times.(A)
Troublesome comforters, all of you!
3 Is there no end to windy words?
What sickness makes you rattle on?
4 I also could talk as you do,
were you in my place.
I could declaim over you,
or wag my head at you;
5 I could strengthen you with talk,
with mere chatter give relief.
6 If I speak, my pain is not relieved;
if I stop speaking, nothing changes.
7 But now he has exhausted me;
you have stunned all my companions.
8 You[a] have shriveled me up; it is a witness,
my gauntness rises up to testify against me;
9 His wrath tears and assails me,
he gnashes his teeth against me;
My enemy looks daggers at me.
10 They gape at me with their mouths;
They strike me on the cheek with insults;
they are all enlisted against me.
11 God has given me over to the impious;
into the hands of the wicked he has cast me.
12 I was in peace, but he dislodged me,
seized me by the neck, dashed me to pieces.
He has set me up for a target;
13 his arrows strike me from all directions.
He pierces my sides without mercy,
pours out my gall upon the ground.
14 He pierces me, thrust upon thrust,
rushes at me like a warrior.
15 I have sewn sackcloth on my skin,
laid my horn low in the dust.
16 My face is inflamed with weeping,
darkness covers my eyes,
17 Although my hands are free from violence,
and my prayer sincere.
18 O earth, do not cover my blood,
nor let my outcry come to rest![b]
19 Even now my witness[c] is in heaven,
my advocate is on high.
20 My friends it is who wrong me;
before God my eyes shed tears,
21 That justice may be done for a mortal with God:
as for a man with his neighbor.
22 For my years are numbered,
and I go the road of no return.
Footnotes
- 16:8 You: God. Job then describes in vv. 9–17 the savage treatment that he has received from God.
- 16:18 As the exposed blood of those who were unjustly slain cries to heaven for vengeance (Gn 4:10; Ez 24:6–9), so Job’s sufferings demand redress.
- 16:19 Witness: refers perhaps to God (is Job appealing to God against God?), or to a mediator (cf. 9:33), or to a personification of Job’s prayer.
Job 16
Revised Geneva Translation
16 But Job answered and said,
2 “I have oftentimes heard such things. Miserable comforters are you all!
3 “Shall there be no end of your words of wind? What makes you so bold to answer?
4 “I could also speak as you do if your soul were in my soul’s place. I could keep you company in speaking and could shake my head at you.
5 “But I would strengthen you with my mouth. And the motion of my lips would bring relief.
6 “Though I speak, my sorrow cannot be relieved. Though I cease, what release have I?
7 “But now, He makes me weary: You have made all my congregation desolate
8 “and have made me full of wrinkles, which is a witness of it. And my leanness rises up in me, testifying in my face.
9 “His wrath has torn and He hates me, gnashing on me with His Teeth. My enemy has sharpened his eyes against me.
10 “They have opened their mouths upon me and struck me on the cheek in reproach. They gathered themselves together against me.
11 “God has delivered me to the unjust and has made me turn out of the way, by the hands of the wicked.
12 “I was wealthy, but he has brought me to nothing. He has taken me by the neck and beaten me and set me as a mark for Himself.
13 “His archers surround me. He pierces my core and does not spare and pours my gall upon the ground.
14 “He has broken me with one breaking upon another and runs upon me like a giant.
15 “I have sown a sackcloth upon my skin and have defiled my horn in the dust.
16 “My face is withered with weeping and the shadow of death is upon my eyes,
17 “though no wickedness is in my hands and my prayer is pure.
18 “O Earth, do not cover my blood. And let my crying find no place.
19 “For lo, now my witness is in the sky, and my record on high.
20 “My friends speak eloquently against me. My eye pours out to God.
21 “Oh that a man might plead with God, as a man with his neighbor!
22 “For few years come before I shall go and not return.
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