Job 16

1Then Job answered:

2“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.

3Is there no end to windy words? What provokes you that you keep answering?

4I too could speak as you do, if you were in my place. I could string words together against you and shake my head at you.

5I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips would ease your pain.

6If I speak, my pain is not eased; and if I hold back, how much of it leaves me?

7But now he has worn me out; you have devastated my whole household.

8You have shriveled me up, and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up against me and testifies to my face.

9His anger has torn me, and he has turned hostile toward me; he gnashes his teeth at me; my enemy fixes his piercing eyes on me.

10They open their mouths wide against me; they strike my cheeks in scorn; they mass together against me.

11God hands me over to the unjust and throws me into the hands of the wicked.

12I was at ease, and he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target.

13His archers surround me; he pierces my kidneys and shows no mercy; he pours my gall out on the ground.

14He breaks through me, breach after breach; he charges at me like a warrior.

15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin and buried my horn in the dust.

16My face is red from weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids,

17though there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

18O earth, do not cover my blood; let my cry find no resting place.

19Even now, look, my witness is in heaven; the one who vouches for me is on high.

20My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God,

21that he would argue a man’s case with God, as a person pleads for a friend.

22For only a few years will pass before I go on the path of no return.