Job 16
16
Job’s Reply to Eliphaz
1Then Job answered:
2I have heard many things like these.
You are all miserable comforters.#Jb 13:4; Ps 69:20; Ec 4:1
3Is there no end to your empty#16:3 Lit windy; Jb 15:2#Jb 15:2 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.#Dt 3:28; Jb 4:4; Is 41:10
6If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?
7Surely he#16:7 Or it has now exhausted me.
You have devastated my entire family.
8You have shriveled me up#16:8 Or have seized me; Hb obscure — it has become a witness;
my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.
9His anger tears at me, and he harasses#Gn 49:23; Jb 30:21; Ps 55:3 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;#1Kg 22:24; Lm 3:30; Mc 5:1
they join themselves together against me.
11God hands me over to the unjust;#16:11 LXX, Vg; MT reads to a boy
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;#Jb 7:20; Lm 3:12
13his archers#16:13 Or arrows surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and pours my bile on the ground.
14He breaks through my defenses again and again;#16:14 Lit through me, breach on breach
he charges at me like a warrior.#Jb 30:14; Jl 2:7
15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
I have buried my strength#16:15 Lit horn in the dust.#Jb 30:19; Ps 7:5; 75:10
16My face has grown red with weeping,
and darkness#Ps 44:19; 107:10; Jr 13:16 covers my eyes,
17although my hands are free from violence#Is 53:9; 59:6; Jnh 3:8
and my prayer is pure.
18Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry for help find no resting place.#Gn 4:10; Is 26:21; Ezk 24:7–8
19Even now my witness is in heaven,
and my advocate is in the heights!#Jb 22:12; Rm 1:9; 1Th 2:5
20My friends scoff at me
as I weep before God.
21I wish that someone might argue for a man with God#Jb 31:35; Ec 6:10; Is 45:9
just as anyone#16:21 Lit a son of man would for a friend.
22For only a few years will pass
before I go the way of no return.
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Job 16: CSB
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