Job 16-17

New Living Translation

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.

³ “You must defend my innocence, O God,
    since no one else will stand up for me.
⁴ You have closed their minds to understanding,
    but do not let them triumph.
⁵ They betray their friends for their own advantage,
    so let their children faint with hunger.

⁶ “God has made a mockery of me among the people;
    they spit in my face.
⁷ My eyes are swollen with weeping,
    and I am but a shadow of my former self.
⁸ The virtuous are horrified when they see me.
    The innocent rise up against the ungodly.
⁹ The righteous keep moving forward,
    and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.

¹⁰ “As for all of you, come back with a better argument,
    though I still won’t find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days are over.
    My hopes have disappeared.
    My heart’s desires are broken.
¹² These men say that night is day;
    they claim that the darkness is light.
¹³ What if I go to the grave^[b]
    and make my bed in darkness?
¹⁴ What if I call the grave my father,
    and the maggot my mother or my sister?
¹⁵ Where then is my hope?
    Can anyone find it?
¹⁶ No, my hope will go down with me to the grave.
    We will rest together in the dust!”