Jubilee2000 - Job - 16

16:1  Then Job answered and said,

16:2  Many times I have heard such things; miserable comforters [are] ye all.

16:3  Shall vain words have an end? Or what is it that emboldens thee to answer?

16:4  I also could speak as ye [do]. I wish your soul were in my soul's stead, that I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

16:5  [But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would assuage [the pain].

16:6  Though if I speak, my pain does not cease; and if I forbear [to speak], it does not depart from me.

16:7  But now he has made me weary; thou hast made desolate all my company.

16:8  And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, [which] is a witness [against me]: and my leanness rising up in me bears witness to my face.

16:9  His wrath has torn me and has been against me; he gnashed upon me with his teeth; my enemy sharpened his eyes upon me.

16:10  They have opened their mouth against me; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.

16:11  God has delivered me unto the liar, and in the hands of the wicked he has caused me to tremble.

16:12  I was prosperous, but he has broken me asunder; he has taken [me] by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark.

16:13  His archers compassed me round about; he cleaved my kidneys asunder and did not spare; he poured out my gall upon the ground.

16:14  He broke me with breach upon breach; he ran upon me like a giant.

16:15  I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin and put dust over my head.

16:16  My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death,

16:17  even though there is no injustice in my hands, and my prayer [has been] pure.

16:18  O earth, do not cover my blood; and let there be no place [where] my cry [is hidden].

16:19  Certainly my witness [is] even now in the heavens, and my record [is] on high.

16:20  Those who dispute with me are my friends, [but] my eyes shall pour out [tears] unto God.

16:21  O that a man might dispute with God, as he can with his neighbour!

16:22  When the counted years are come, then I shall go the way from which I shall not return.: