Job 16-17
World English Bible
16 Then Job answered,
2 “I have heard many such things.
You are all miserable comforters!
3 Shall vain words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do.
If your soul were in my soul’s place,
I could join words together against you,
and shake my head at you,
5 but I would strengthen you with my mouth.
The solace of my lips would relieve you.
6 “Though I speak, my grief is not subsided.
Though I forbear, what am I eased?
7 But now, God, you have surely worn me out.
You have made all my company desolate.
8 You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me.
My leanness rises up against me.
It testifies to my face.
9 He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me.
He has gnashed on me with his teeth.
My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
10 They have gaped on me with their mouth.
They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully.
They gather themselves together against me.
11 God delivers me to the ungodly,
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart.
Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces.
He has also set me up for his target.
13 His archers surround me.
He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare.
He pours out my bile on the ground.
14 He breaks me with breach on breach.
He runs at me like a giant.
15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
and have thrust my horn in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping.
Deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18 “Earth, don’t cover my blood.
Let my cry have no place to rest.
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven.
He who vouches for me is on high.
20 My friends scoff at me.
My eyes pour out tears to God,
21 that he would maintain the right of a man with God,
of a son of man with his neighbor!
22 For when a few years have come,
I will go the way of no return.
17 “My spirit is consumed.
My days are extinct,
and the grave is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers with me.
My eye dwells on their provocation.
3 “Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me?
4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
Therefore you will not exalt them.
5 He who denounces his friends for plunder,
Even the eyes of his children will fail.
6 “But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face.
7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow.
8 Upright men will be astonished at this.
The innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous will hold to his way.
He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
10 But as for you all, come back.
I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past.
My plans are broken off,
as are the thoughts of my heart.
12 They change the night into day,
saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
13 If I look for Sheol[a] as my house,
if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
14 if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’
to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
As for my hope, who will see it?
16 Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol,[b]
or descend together into the dust?”
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