16 In response Iyov said:

² “I have heard this stuff so often!
Such sorry comforters, all of you!
³ Is there no end to words of wind?
What provokes you to answer this way?

⁴ “If I were in your place,
I too could speak as you do —
I could string phrases together against you
and shake my head at you.
⁵ I could ‘strengthen’ you with my mouth,
with lip service I could ‘ease your grief.’
⁶ If I speak, my own pain isn’t eased;
and if I don’t speak, it still doesn’t leave.

⁷ “But now he has worn me out;
you have desolated this whole community of mine.
⁸ Besides, you have shriveled me up;
and this serves to witness against me.
My being so thin rises up against me
and testifies to my face.
⁹ He tears me apart in his anger;
he holds a grudge against me;
he gnashes on me with his teeth.
“My enemies look daggers at me.
¹⁰ Wide-mouthed, they gape at me;
with scorn, they slap my cheeks;
they gather themselves together against me.

¹¹ “God delivers me to the perverse,
throws me into the hands of the wicked.
¹² I was at peace, and he shook me apart.
Yes, he grabbed me by the neck and dashed me to pieces.
He set me up as his target —
¹³ his archers surrounded me.
He slashes my innards and shows no mercy,
he pours my gall on the ground.
¹⁴ He breaks in on me again and again,
attacking me like a warrior.

¹⁵ “I sewed sackcloth together to cover my skin
and laid my pride in the dust;
¹⁶ my face is red from crying,
and on my eyelids is a death-dark shadow.
¹⁷ Yet my hands are free from violence,
and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “Earth, don’t cover my blood;
don’t let my cry rest [without being answered].
¹⁹ Even now, my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is there on high.
²⁰ With friends like these as intercessors,
my eyes pour out tears to God,
²¹ that he would arbitrate between a man and God,
just as one does for his fellow human being.
²² For I have but few years left
before I leave on the road of no return.