Job 16-18

English Standard Version

² “I have heard ^(A)many such things;
    ^(B)miserable comforters are you all.
³ Shall ^(C)windy words have an end?
    Or what provokes you that you answer?
⁴ I also could speak as you do,
    if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
    and ^(D)shake my head at you.
⁵ I could strengthen you with my mouth,
    and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

⁶ “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
    and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
⁷ Surely now God has worn me out;
    ^(E)he has^[a] made desolate all my company.
⁸ And he has shriveled me up,
    which is ^(F)a witness against me,
and my ^(G)leanness has risen up against me;
    it testifies to my face.
⁹ He has ^(H)torn me in his wrath ^(I)and hated me;
    he has ^(J)gnashed his teeth at me;
    my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
¹⁰ Men have ^(K)gaped at me with their mouth;
    they have ^(L)struck me insolently on the cheek;
    they ^(M)mass themselves together against me.
¹¹ God gives me up to the ungodly
    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
    he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his ^(N)target;
¹³     his ^(O)archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys ^(P)and does not spare;
    he ^(Q)pours out my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ He breaks me with ^(R)breach upon breach;
    he ^(S)runs upon me like a warrior.
¹⁵ I have sewed ^(T)sackcloth upon my skin
    and have laid ^(U)my strength ^(V)in the dust.
¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
    and on my eyelids is ^(W)deep darkness,
¹⁷ although there is no ^(X)violence in my hands,
    and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “O earth, ^(Y)cover not my blood,
    and let my ^(Z)cry find no resting place.
¹⁹ Even now, behold, my ^(AA)witness is in heaven,
    and he who testifies for me is ^(AB)on high.
²⁰ My friends ^(AC)scorn me;
    my eye pours out tears to God,
²¹ that he would ^(AD)argue the case of a man with God,
    as^[b] a son of man does with his neighbor.
²² For when a few years have come
    I shall go the way ^(AE)from which I shall not return.

³ “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
    who is there who will put up ^(AI)security for me?
⁴ Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵ He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
    the ^(AJ)eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ “He has made me ^(AK)a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom men spit.
⁷ My ^(AL)eye has grown dim from vexation,
    and all my members are like ^(AM)a shadow.
⁸ The upright are ^(AN)appalled at this,
    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous holds to his way,
    and he who has ^(AO)clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But you, ^(AP)come on again, all of you,
    and I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My ^(AQ)days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
¹² They ^(AR)make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’^[c]
13 If I hope for ^(AS)Sheol as ^(AT)my house,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the bars of ^(AU)Sheol?
    Shall we ^(AV)descend together ^(AW)into the dust?”^[d]

² “How long will you ^(AY)hunt for words?
    Consider, and then we will speak.
³ Why are we counted as ^(AZ)cattle?
    Why are we stupid in your sight?
⁴ You who ^(BA)tear yourself in your anger,
    shall the earth be forsaken for you,
    or ^(BB)the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ “Indeed, ^(BC)the light of the wicked is put out,
    and the flame of his fire does not shine.
⁶ The light is ^(BD)dark in his tent,
    and his lamp above him is put out.
⁷ His strong steps are shortened,
    and his ^(BE)own schemes throw him down.
⁸ For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
    and he walks on its mesh.
^9 (BF)A trap seizes him by the heel;
    a snare lays hold of him.
¹⁰ A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
    a trap for him in the path.
^11 (BG)Terrors frighten him on every side,
    and chase him at his heels.
¹² His strength is famished,
    and calamity is ^(BH)ready for his stumbling.
¹³ It consumes the parts of his skin;
    ^(BI)the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
¹⁴ He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
    and is brought to ^(BJ)the king of terrors.
¹⁵ In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
    ^(BK)sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
¹⁶ His ^(BL)roots dry up beneath,
    and his branches ^(BM)wither above.
¹⁷ His ^(BN)memory perishes from the earth,
    and he has no name in the street.
^18 (BO)He is thrust from light into darkness,
    and driven out of the world.
¹⁹ He has no ^(BP)posterity or progeny among his people,
    and no survivor where he used to live.
²⁰ They of the west are appalled at his ^(BQ)day,
    and ^(BR)horror seizes them of the east.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
    such is the place of him who ^(BS)knows not God.”