Job 16:1
Then Job answered:
Job 16:2
“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.
Job 16:3
Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?
Job 16:4
I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
Job 16:5
But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.
Job 16:6
Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?
Job 16:7
Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.
Job 16:8
You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.
Job 16:9
His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
Job 16:10
They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.
Job 16:11
God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.
Job 16:12
I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;
Job 16:13
His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.
Job 16:14
He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.
Job 16:15
I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.
Job 16:16
My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;
Job 16:17
yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.
Job 16:18
O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.
Job 16:19
Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.
Job 16:20
My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.
Job 16:21
Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!
Job 16:22
For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.