16:1   Then Job answered,

16:2  "I have heard many such things; Sorry comforters have you all proved yourselves.

16:3  " Do you have any limit to your windy words? Or what plagues you that you answer?

16:4   "I too could speak like you, If I found myself in your place. I could compose words against you And shake my head at you.

16:5  "I could strengthen you with my mouth, And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.

16:6  "If I speak, my pain has not lessened, And if I hold back, what has left me?

16:7  "But now He has exhausted me; You have laid waste all my company.

16:8   "You have shriveled me up, It has become a witness; And my leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face.

16:9  "His anger has torn me and hunted me down, He has gnashed at me with His teeth; My adversary glares at me.

16:10   "They have gaped at me with their mouth, They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt; They have massed themselves against me.

16:11  "God hands me over to ruffians And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.

16:12  "I felt at ease, but He shattered me, And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces; He has also set me up as His target.

16:13   "His arrows surround me Without mercy He splits my kidneys open; He pours out my gall on the ground.

16:14  "He breaks through me with breach after breach; He runs at me like a warrior.

16:15  "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin And thrust my horn in the dust.

16:16  "My face feels flushed from weeping, And deep darkness rests on my eyelids,

16:17  Although I have no violence in my hands, And my prayer comes from pure motives.

16:18  "O earth, do not cover my blood, And let no resting place come for my cry.

16:19  "Even now, behold, my witness resides in heaven, And my advocate lives on high.

16:20  "My friends scoff at me; My eye weeps to God.

16:21  "O that a man might plead with God As a man with his neighbor!

16:22  "For when a few years have passed, I shall go the way of no return.