Job 16  Tree of Life Version

² “I have heard many things like these;
    you are miserable comforters, all of you!
³ Is there no end to your futile words?
    What compels you to answer?
⁴ I too could speak like you,
    if you were in my place;
I could compose words against you
    and shake my head at you.
⁵ But I would strengthen you with my mouth
and comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

⁶ “Yet, if I speak, my pain is not relieved,
and if I refrain, does it not go away from me?
⁷ Surely now He has exhausted me;
    You have devastated my entire household.
⁸ You have seized me—
    it has become a witness;
my leanness rises against me
    and testifies to my face.
⁹ His anger has torn and tormented me;
    He gnashes at me with his teeth;
my enemy looks at me with daggers in his eyes.
¹⁰ People open their mouths against me;
    they strike my cheek in contempt;
    they unite together against me.
¹¹ God has handed me over to the ungodly,
    and tossed me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, but He shattered me;
    He grabbed me by the neck and crushed me.
    He has made me His target;
¹³ His archers surround me.
    Without mercy He pierces my kidneys
    and spills my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ He breaks through against me, breach after breach.
He runs after me like a warrior.

¹⁵ “I have sewn sackcloth over my skin
    and sunk my horn in the dust;
¹⁶ my face is red from weeping,
    and on my eyelids are deep darkness;
¹⁷ yet no violence is in my hands
    and my prayer is pure.
¹⁸ “Earth, do not cover my blood,
    and let my cry find no resting place!
¹⁹ Even now my witness is in heaven,^[a]
    my advocate is on high.
²⁰ My intercessor is my friend;
    as my eyes pour out tears to God;
²¹ he contends with God on behalf of man
    as one pleads for a friend.

²² “For the number of years will come to pass,
and then I will go the way of no return.