16:1  And Job answered and said,

16:2  "I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all!

16:3  Is there no end to windy words? Or what provokes you that you should answer?

16:4  I also could speak as you do; if your soul were in my soul's place. I could heap up words against you, and shake my head at you.

16:5  But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips would assuage your grief.

16:6  Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged, and though I forbear speaking, in what way am I eased?

16:7  But now He has made me exhausted; You have made all my company desolate.

16:8  And You have shriveled me up, for it is a witness against me: and my leanness rises up in me, and it is seen in my face.

16:9  His anger has torn and assailed me; He gnashes upon me with His teeth; my enemy sharpens his eyes at me;

16:10  They have gaped upon me with their mouth; and have scornfully beaten me on the cheek; they gather themselves together against me.

16:11  God has delivered me to the ungodly; and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

16:12  I was at ease, but He has dashed me in pieces; yea, He has also seized me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for His mark.

16:13  His archers hem me in; He splits my reins asunder, and does not spare; He pours out my gall upon the ground.

16:14  He breaks me with breach upon breach; He runs upon me like a giant.

16:15  I have sewed sackcloth on my skin and laid my horn in the dust.

16:16  My face is reddened from weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

16:17  Though no injustice is in my hand, and also my prayer is pure.

16:18  Oh, earth, do not cover my blood, and let not my cry have a resting place.

16:19  Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and He who testifies of me is on high.

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

16:21  Oh, that a man might plead with God, as a man pleads with his neighbor!

16:22  Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return."