16:1 THEN JOB answered, |
16:2 I have heard many such things; wearisome {and} miserable comforters are you all! |
16:3 Will your futile words of wind have no end? Or what makes you so bold to answer [me like this]? |
16:4 I also could speak as you do, if you were in my stead; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. |
16:5 [But] I would strengthen {and} encourage you with [the words of] my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would soothe your suffering. |
16:6 If I speak [to you miserable comforters], my sorrow is not soothed {or} lessened; and if I refrain [from speaking], in what way am I eased? [I hardly know whether to answer you or be silent.] |
16:7 But now [God] has taken away my strength. You [O Lord] have made desolate all my family {and} associates. |
16:8 You have laid firm hold on me {and} have shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; and my leanness [and wretched state of body] are further evidence [against me]; [they] testify to my face. |
16:9 [My adversary Satan] has torn [me] in his wrath and hated {and} persecuted me; he has gnashed upon me with his teeth; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. |
16:10 [The forces of evil] have gaped at me with their mouths; they have struck me upon the cheek insolently; they massed themselves together {and} conspired unanimously against me. |
16:11 God has delivered me to the ungodly (to the evil one) and cast me [headlong] into the hands of the wicked (Satan's host). |
16:12 I was living at ease, but [Satan] crushed me {and} broke me apart; yes, he seized me by the neck and dashed me in pieces; then he set me up for his target. |
16:13 [Satan's] arrows whiz around me. He slashes open my vitals and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. |
16:14 [Satan] stabs me, making breach after breach {and} attacking again and again; he runs at me like a giant {and} irresistible warrior. |
16:15 I have sewed sackcloth over my skin [as a sign of mourning] and have defiled my horn (my insignia of strength) in the dust. |
16:16 My face is red {and} swollen with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death [my eyes are dimmed], |
16:17 Although there is no guilt {or} violence in my hands and my prayer is pure. |
16:18 O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry have no resting-place [where it will cease being heard]. |
16:19 Even now, behold, my Witness is in heaven, and He who vouches for me is on high. |
16:20 My friends scorn me, but my eye pours out tears to God. |
16:21 Oh, that there might be one who would plead for a man with God {and} that he would maintain his right with Him, as a son of man pleads with {or} for his neighbor! |
16:22 For when a few years are come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return. |