Job 16
Lexham English Bible
Job’s Fifth Speech
16 Then[a] Job answered and said,
2 “I have heard many things like these;
all of you are miserable comforters.[b]
3 Is there a limit to windy words?
What provokes you that you answer?
4 I myself[c] also could talk as you,
if you were in my place;[d]
I could join against you with words,
and I could shake at you with my head.
5 I could[e] encourage you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would[f] ease the pain.
6 If I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I cease, how much will leave me?
7 “Surely now he has worn me out;
you[g] have devastated all my company.
8 Thus[h] you shriveled me up;[i]
it became a witness.
And my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
9 His wrath has torn, and he has been hostile toward me;
he gnashed at me with his teeth.
My foe sharpens his eyes against me.
10 They gaped at me with their mouth;
they struck my cheeks with disgrace;
they have massed themselves together against me.
11 God delivers me to an evil one,
and he casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 “I was at ease, then[j] he broke me in two,
and he seized me by my neck;
then[k] he shattered me
and set me up as a target for him.
13 His archers surround me;
he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breached me breach upon breach;[l]
he rushes at me like a warrior.
15 “I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
and I have inserted my pride[m] in the dust.
16 My face is red because of weeping,
and deep shadows are on my eyelids,
17 although[n] violence is not on my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, you should not cover my blood,
and let there be no place[o] for my cry for help.
19 So now look, my witness is in the heavens,
and he who vouches for me is in the heights.
20 My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21 and it argues[p] for a mortal with God,
and as a human[q] for his friend.
22 Indeed, after a few years[r] have come,
then[s] I will go the way from which I will not return.
Footnotes
- Job 16:1 Hebrew “And”
- Job 16:2 Literally “comforters of trouble”
- Job 16:4 Emphatic personal pronoun;
- Job 16:4 Literally “there is your soul in place of my soul”
- Job 16:5 Or “would”
- Job 16:5 Or “should”
- Job 16:7 Singular
- Job 16:8 Hebrew “And”
- Job 16:8 Or “you have seized me”
- Job 16:12 Hebrew “and”
- Job 16:12 Hebrew “and”
- Job 16:14 Literally “breach upon the faces of breach”
- Job 16:15 Literally “my horn”
- Job 16:17 Literally “upon,” or “because”
- Job 16:18 Or “do not let it become a place”
- Job 16:21 Or “but may someone argue”
- Job 16:21 Literally “a son of man”
- Job 16:22 Literally “years of number”
- Job 16:22 Hebrew “and”
Job 16
New Living Translation
Job’s Fifth Speech: A Response to Eliphaz
16 Then Job spoke again:
2 “I have heard all this before.
What miserable comforters you are!
3 Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air?
What makes you keep on talking?
4 I could say the same things if you were in my place.
I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.
5 But if it were me, I would encourage you.
I would try to take away your grief.
6 Instead, I suffer if I defend myself,
and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.
7 “O God, you have ground me down
and devastated my family.
8 As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones.
My gaunt flesh testifies against me.
9 God hates me and angrily tears me apart.
He snaps his teeth at me
and pierces me with his eyes.
10 People jeer and laugh at me.
They slap my cheek in contempt.
A mob gathers against me.
11 God has handed me over to sinners.
He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.
12 “I was living quietly until he shattered me.
He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces.
Then he set me up as his target,
13 and now his archers surround me.
His arrows pierce me without mercy.
The ground is wet with my blood.[a]
14 Again and again he smashes against me,
charging at me like a warrior.
15 I wear burlap to show my grief.
My pride lies in the dust.
16 My eyes are red with weeping;
dark shadows circle my eyes.
17 Yet I have done no wrong,
and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, do not conceal my blood.
Let it cry out on my behalf.
19 Even now my witness is in heaven.
My advocate is there on high.
20 My friends scorn me,
but I pour out my tears to God.
21 I need someone to mediate between God and me,
as a person mediates between friends.
22 For soon I must go down that road
from which I will never return.
Footnotes
- 16:13 Hebrew my gall.
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
