Job 16

English Standard Version

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

16 Then Job answered and said:

²“I have heard ^(A)many such things;
    ^(B)miserable comforters are you all.
³Shall ^(C)windy words have an end?
    Or what provokes you that you answer?
⁴I 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.
⁵I 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?
⁷Surely now God has worn me out;
    ^(E)he has^[a] made desolate all my company.
⁸And 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.
⁹He 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.
¹⁰Men have ^(K)gaped at me with their mouth;
    they have ^(L)struck me insolently on the cheek;
    they ^(M)mass themselves together against me.
¹¹God gives me up to the ungodly
    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
¹²I 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.
¹⁴He breaks me with ^(R)breach upon breach;
    he ^(S)runs upon me like a warrior.
¹⁵I have sewed ^(T)sackcloth upon my skin
    and have laid ^(U)my strength ^(V)in the dust.
¹⁶My face is red with weeping,
    and on my eyelids is ^(W)deep darkness,
¹⁷although 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.
¹⁹Even now, behold, my ^(AA)witness is in heaven,
    and he who testifies for me is ^(AB)on high.
²⁰My friends ^(AC)scorn me;
    my eye pours out tears to God,
²¹that he would ^(AD)argue the case of a man with God,
    as^[b] a son of man does with his neighbor.
²²For when a few years have come
    I shall go the way ^(AE)from which I shall not return.

Footnotes

Job 16:7 Hebrew you have; also verse 8
Job 16:21 Hebrew and

2 Samuel 16

English Standard Version

David and Ziba

16 When David had passed a little beyond ^(A)the summit, ^(B)Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, bearing two hundred loaves of bread, ^(C)a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred of summer fruits, and a skin of wine. ²And the king said to Ziba, “Why have you brought these?” Ziba answered, ^(D)“The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who ^(E)faint in the wilderness to drink.” ³And the king said, “And where is your master's son?” ^(F)Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he remains in Jerusalem, for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will give me back the kingdom of my father.’” ⁴Then the king said to Ziba, “Behold, all that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours.” And Ziba said, “I pay homage; let me ever find favor in your sight, my lord the king.”

Shimei Curses David

⁵When King David came to ^(G)Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was ^(H)Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came ^(I)he cursed continually. ⁶And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. ⁷And Shimei said as he ^(J)cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! ⁸The Lord ^(K)has avenged on you all ^(L)the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.”

⁹Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this ^(M)dead dog ^(N)curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” ¹⁰But the king said, ^(O)“What have I to do with you, ^(P)you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” ¹¹And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, ^(Q)my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. ¹²It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me,^[a] and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.” ¹³So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and ^(R)cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. ¹⁴And the king, and all the people who were with him, ^(S)arrived weary at the Jordan.^[b] And there he refreshed himself.

Absalom Enters Jerusalem

¹⁵^(T)Now Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. ¹⁶And when Hushai the Archite, ^(U)David's friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, ^(V)“Long live the king! Long live the king!” ¹⁷And Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your loyalty to your friend? ^(W)Why did you not go with your friend?” ¹⁸And Hushai said to Absalom, “No, for whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will remain. ¹⁹And again, ^(X)whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? As I have served your father, so I will serve you.”

²⁰Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel. What shall we do?” ²¹Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to ^(Y)your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and ^(Z)the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.” ²²So they pitched a tent for Absalom ^(AA)on the roof. And Absalom went in to his father's concubines ^(AB)in the sight of all Israel. ²³Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, ^(AC)both by David and by Absalom.