‏ Job 16

Job Says Friends Are Miserable Comforters

1 Then Job responded,
2 “I have heard many things like these;
Lit Comforters of trouble
bMiserable comforters are you all!

3 “Is there no end to cwindy words?
Or what provokes you that you answer?

4 “I too could speak like you,
If only
Lit your soul were in place of my soul
I were in your place.
I could compose words against you
And eshake my head at you.

5Or I could strengthen you with my mouth,
And the condolence of my lips could lessen your pain.

Job Says God Shattered Him



6 “If I speak, fmy pain is not lessened,
And if I refrain, what pain leaves me?

7 “But now He has gexhausted me;
You have laid hwaste all my group of loved ones.

8 “And you have shriveled me up,
I.e., Job’s condition
jIt has become a witness;
And my kinfirmity rises up against me,
It testifies to my face.

9 “His anger has ltorn me and
Lit borne a grudge against me
hunted me down,
He has ngnashed at me with His teeth;
My oenemy
Lit sharpens his eyes
glares at me.

10 “They have qgaped at me with their mouths,
They have
Lit struck
sslapped me on the cheek with contempt;
They have tmassed themselves against me.

11 “God hands me over to criminals,
And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.

12 “I was at ease, but uHe shattered me,
And He has grasped me by my neck and shaken me to pieces;
He has also set me up as His vtarget.

13 “His warrows surround me.
He splits my kidneys open without mercy;
He pours out xmy bile on the ground.

14 “He ybreaks through me with breach after breach;
He zruns at me like a warrior.

15 “I have sewed aasackcloth over my skin,
And abthrust my horn in the dust.

16 “My face is flushed from acweeping,
adAnd deep darkness is on my eyelids,

17 Although there is no aeviolence in my hands,
And afmy prayer is pure.


18 “Earth, do not cover my blood,
And may there be no resting place for my cry.

19 “Even now, behold, agmy witness is in heaven,
And my
Or witness
advocate is aion high.

20 “My friends are my scoffers;
ajMy eye weeps to God,

21 That one might plead for a man with God
As a son of man with his neighbor!

22 “For when a few years are past,
I shall go the way akof no return.
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