Job 16 (New International Version)

Job 16

Job

 ² "I have heard many things like these;
       miserable comforters are you all!

 ³ Will your long-winded speeches never end?
       What ails you that you keep on arguing?

 ⁴ I also could speak like you,
       if you were in my place;
       I could make fine speeches against you
       and shake my head at you.

 ⁵ But my mouth would encourage you;
       comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

 ⁶ "Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
       and if I refrain, it does not go away.

 ⁷ Surely, O God, you have worn me out;
       you have devastated my entire household.

 ⁸ You have bound me—and it has become a witness;
       my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

 ⁹ God assails me and tears me in his anger
       and gnashes his teeth at me;
       my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

 ¹⁰ Men open their mouths to jeer at me;
       they strike my cheek in scorn
       and unite together against me.

 ¹¹ God has turned me over to evil men
       and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

 ¹² All was well with me, but he shattered me;
       he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
       He has made me his target;

 ¹³ his archers surround me.
       Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
       and spills my gall on the ground.

 ¹⁴ Again and again he bursts upon me;
       he rushes at me like a warrior.

 ¹⁵ "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
       and buried my brow in the dust.

 ¹⁶ My face is red with weeping,
       deep shadows ring my eyes;

 ¹⁷ yet my hands have been free of violence
       and my prayer is pure.

 ¹⁸ "O earth, do not cover my blood;
       may my cry never be laid to rest!

 ¹⁹ Even now my witness is in heaven;
       my advocate is on high.

 ²⁰ My intercessor is my friend ^[a]
       as my eyes pour out tears to God;

 ²¹ on behalf of a man he pleads with God
       as a man pleads for his friend.

 ²² "Only a few years will pass
       before I go on the journey of no return.