Job 16:1-22 - Job's Fifth Speech

¹ Then Job answered and said, ² "I have heard many [things] like these; all of you [are] {miserable comforters}. ³ [Is there] a limit to windy words? What provokes you that you answer? ⁴ I myself also could talk as you, if {you were in my place}; I could join against you with words, and I could shake at you with my head. ⁵ I could encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would ease the pain.

⁶ If I speak, my pain is not relieved; and [if] I cease, how much will leave me? ⁷ "Surely now he has worn me out; you have devastated all my company. ⁸ Thus you shriveled me up; it became a witness. And my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face. ⁹ His wrath has torn, and he has been hostile toward me; he gnashed at me with his teeth. My foe sharpens his eyes against me. ¹⁰ They gaped at me with their mouth; they struck my cheeks with disgrace; they have massed themselves together against me. ¹¹ God delivers me to an evil one, and he casts me into the hands of [the] wicked. ¹² "I was at ease, then he broke me in two, and he seized [me] by my neck; then he shattered me and set me up as a target for him. ¹³ His archers surround me; he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion; he pours out my gall on the ground. ¹⁴ He breached me {breach upon breach}; he rushes at me like a warrior.

¹⁵ "I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and I have inserted {my pride} in the dust. ¹⁶ My face is red because of weeping, and deep shadows [are] on my eyelids, ¹⁷ {although} violence [is] not on my hands, and my prayer [is] pure.

¹⁸ "O earth, you should not cover my blood, and let there be no place for my cry for help. ¹⁹ So now look, my witness [is] in the heavens, and he [who] vouches for me [is] in the heights. ²⁰ My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, ²¹ and it argues for a mortal with God, and [as] {a human} for his friend. ²² Indeed, [after] {a few years} have come, then I will go [the] way [from which] I will not return.