Job 16

1Then Job answered and said:

2I have heard many such things; all of you are miserable comforters.

3Is there no end to windy words? Or what provokes you, that you answer?

4I too could speak like you, if you were in my place. I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

5I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips could ease your pain.

6If I speak, my pain is not eased; and if I refrain, what goes away from me?

7Surely now he has worn me out; you have devastated all my company.

8You have shriveled me up—it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up against me and testifies to my face.

9His anger has torn me, and he hates me; he gnashes his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

10They have opened their mouths wide against me; with reproach they have struck my cheek; together they gather themselves against me.

11God hands me over to the ungodly and throws me into the hands of the wicked.

12I was at ease, but he shattered me; he seized me by my neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up for himself as a target.

13His archers surround me; he splits open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.

14He breaks me open, breach upon breach; he rushes at me like a warrior.

15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and thrust my horn into the dust.

16My face is red from weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness.

17although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

18O earth, do not cover my blood, and let there be no place for my cry.

19Even now, look—my witness is in heaven, and my witness is in the heights.

20My friends are my mockers; my eye sheds tears to God.

21that he would plead for a man with God, as a person does for his neighbor.

22For a few years will pass, and I will go on the path from which I will not return.