Job 16

Jubilee Bible 2000

16 ¶ Then Job answered and said,

² Many times I have heard such things; miserable comforters are ye all.

³ Shall vain words have an end? Or what is it that emboldens thee to answer?

⁴ I also could speak as ye do. I wish your soul were in my soul’s stead, that I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

⁵ But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would assuage the pain.

⁶ ¶ Though if I speak, my pain does not cease; and if I forbear to speak, it does not depart from me.

⁷ But now he has made me weary; thou hast made desolate all my company.

⁸ And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me bears witness to my face.

⁹ His wrath has torn me and has been against me; he gnashed upon me with his teeth; my enemy sharpened his eyes upon me.

¹⁰ They have opened their mouth against me; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.

¹¹ God has delivered me unto the liar, and in the hands of the wicked he has caused me to tremble.

¹² I was prosperous, but he has broken me asunder; he has taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark.

¹³ His archers compassed me round about; he cleaved my kidneys asunder and did not spare; he poured out my gall upon the ground.

¹⁴ He broke me with breach upon breach; he ran upon me like a giant.

¹⁵ I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin and put dust over my head.

¹⁶ My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death,

¹⁷ ¶ even though there is no injustice in my hands, and my prayer has been pure.

¹⁸ O earth, do not cover my blood; and let there be no place where my cry is hidden.

¹⁹ Certainly my witness is even now in the heavens, and my record is on high.

²⁰ Those who dispute with me are my friends, but my eyes shall pour out tears unto God.

²¹ O that a man might dispute with God, as he can with his neighbour!

²² When the counted years are come, then I shall go the way from which I shall not return.