Job 16

Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

¹Then Job answered:

²I have heard many things like these.

You are all miserable comforters. ^a

³Is there no end to your empty ^b,^c words?

What provokes you that you continue testifying?

⁴If you were in my place I could also talk like you.

I could string words together against you

and shake my head at you.

⁵Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,

and the consolation from my lips would bring relief. ^d

⁶If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,

and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?

⁷Surely he ^e has now exhausted me.

You have devastated my entire family.

⁸You have shriveled me up ^f #— #it has become a witness;

my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.

⁹His anger tears at me, and he harasses ^g me.

He gnashes his teeth at me.

My enemy pierces me with his eyes.

¹⁰They open their mouths against me

and strike my cheeks with contempt; ^h

they join themselves together against me.

¹¹God hands me over to the unjust; ⁱ

he throws me to the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, but he shattered me;

he seized me by the scruff of the neck

and smashed me to pieces.

He set me up as his target; ^j

¹³his archers ^k surround me.

He pierces my kidneys without mercy

and pours my bile on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks through my defenses again and again; ^l

he charges at me like a warrior. ^m

¹⁵I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;

I have buried my strength ⁿ in the dust. ^o

¹⁶My face has grown red with weeping,

and darkness ^p covers my eyes,

¹⁷although my hands are free from violence ^q

and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸Earth, do not cover my blood;

may my cry for help find no resting place. ^r

¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven,

and my advocate is in the heights! ^s

²⁰My friends scoff at me

as I weep before God.

²¹I wish that someone might argue for a man with God ^t

just as anyone ^u would for a friend.

²²For only a few years will pass

before I go the way of no return.