Job 16

HCSB

Job 16

Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

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1} Then Job answered:

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2}

I have heard many things like these.
You are all miserable comforters.^(A)

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3}

Is there no end to your empty^(a)^(B) words?
What provokes you that you continue testifying?

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4}

If you were in my place I could also talk like you.
I could string words together against you
and shake my head at you.

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5}

Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,
and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.^(C)

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6}

Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
and if I hold back, what have I lost?

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7}

Surely He^(b) has now exhausted me.
You have devastated my entire family.

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8}

You have shriveled me up^(c)—it has become a witness;
My frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.

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9}

His anger tears at me, and He harasses^(D) me.
He gnashes His teeth at me.
My enemy pierces me with His eyes.

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10}

They open their mouths against me
and strike my cheeks with contempt;^(E)
they join themselves together against me.

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11}

God hands me over to unjust men;^(d)
He throws me into the hands of the wicked.

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12}

I 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;^(F)

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13}

His archers^(e) surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and pours my bile on the ground.

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14}

He breaks through my defenses again and again;^(f)
He charges at me like a warrior.^(G)

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I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
I have buried my strength^(g) in the dust.^(H)

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16}

My face has grown red with weeping,
and darkness^(I) covers my eyes,

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17}

although my hands are free from violence^(J)
and my prayer is pure.

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18}

Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry for help find no resting place.^(K)

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19}

Even now my witness is in heaven,
and my advocate is in the heights!^(L)

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20}

My friends scoff at me
as I weep before God.

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21}

I wish that someone might arbitrate
between a man and God^(M)
just as a man pleads for his friend.

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22}

For only a few years will pass
before I go the way of no return.

Footnotes:

a. Job 16:3: Lit windy; Jb 15:2

b. Job 16:7: Or it

c. Job 16:8: Or have seized me; Hb obscure

d. Job 16:11: LXX, Vg; MT reads to a boy

e. Job 16:13: Or arrows

f. Job 16:14: Lit through me, breach on breach

g. Job 16:15: Lit horn

Cross references:

A. Job 16:2: Job 13:4; Psalm 69:20; Ecclesiastes 4:1

B. Job 16:3: Job 15:2

C. Job 16:5: Deuteronomy 3:28; Job 4:4; Isaiah 41:10

D. Job 16:9: Genesis 49:23; Job 30:21; Psalm 55:3

E. Job 16:10: 1 Kings 22:24; Lamentations 3:30; Micah 5:1

F. Job 16:12: Job 7:20

G. Job 16:14: Job 30:14; Joel 2:7

H. Job 16:15: Job 30:19; Psalm 7:5; Psalm 75:10

I. Job 16:16: Psalm 44:19; Psalm 107:10; Jeremiah 13:16

J. Job 16:17: Isaiah 53:9; Isaiah 59:6; Jonah 3:8

K. Job 16:18: Genesis 4:10; Isaiah 26:21; Ezekiel 24:7-8

L. Job 16:19: Job 22:12; Romans 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:5

M. Job 16:21: Job 31:35; Ecclesiastes 6:10; Isaiah 45:9