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.