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. |