16:1   I have heard words like that before; the comfort you give is only torment.

16:2   (SEE 16:1)

16:3   Are you going to keep on talking forever? Do you always have to have the last word?

16:4   If you were in my place and I in yours, I could say everything you are saying. I could shake my head wisely and drown you with a flood of words.

16:5   I could strengthen you with advice and keep talking to comfort you.

16:6   But nothing I say helps, and being silent does not calm my pain.

16:7   You have worn me out, God; you have let my family be killed.

16:8   You have seized me; you are my enemy. I am skin and bones, and people take that as proof of my guilt.

16:9   In anger God tears me limb from limb; he glares at me with hate.

16:10   People sneer at me; they crowd around me and slap my face.

16:11   God has handed me over to evil people.

16:12   I was living in peace, but God took me by the throat and battered me and crushed me. God uses me for target practice

16:13   and shoots arrows at me from every side--- arrows that pierce and wound me; and even then he shows no pity.

16:14   He wounds me again and again; he attacks like a soldier gone mad with hate.

16:15   I mourn and wear clothes made of sackcloth, and I sit here in the dust defeated.

16:16   I have cried until my face is red, and my eyes are swollen and circled with shadows,

16:17   but I am not guilty of any violence, and my prayer to God is sincere.

16:18   O Earth, don't hide the wrongs done to me! Don't let my call for justice be silenced!

16:19   There is someone in heaven to stand up for me and take my side.

16:20   My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God.

16:21   I want someone to plead with God for me, as one pleads for a friend.

16:22   My years are passing now, and I walk the road of no return.