Job 16
16
Job Reproaches His Pitiless Friends
1Then Job answered and said:
2“I have heard many such things;
#Job 13:4; 21:34Miserable comforters are you all!
3Shall words of wind have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4I also could speak as you do,
If your soul were in my soul’s place.
I could heap up words against you,
And #Ps. 22:7; 109:25; Lam. 2:15; Zeph. 2:15; Matt. 27:39shake my head at you;
5But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.
6“Though I speak, my grief is not relieved;
And if I remain silent, how am I eased?
7But now He has #Job 7:3worn me out;
You #Job 16:20; 19:13–15have made desolate all my company.
8You have shriveled me up,
And it is a #Job 10:17witness against me;
My leanness rises up against me
And bears witness to my face.
9#Job 10:16, 17; 19:11; Hos. 6:1He tears me in His wrath, and hates me;
He gnashes at me with His teeth;
#Job 13:24; 33:10My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.
10They #Ps. 22:13; 35:21gape at me with their mouth,
They #Is. 50:6; Lam. 3:30; Mic. 5:1; Matt. 26:67; Mark 14:65; Luke 22:63; Acts 23:2strike me reproachfully on the cheek,
They gather together against me.
11God #Job 1:15, 17has delivered me to the ungodly,
And turned me over to the hands of the wicked.
12I was at ease, but He has #Job 9:17shattered me;
He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces;
He has #Job 7:20; Lam. 3:12set me up for His target,
13His archers surround me.
He pierces my heart and does not pity;
He pours out my gall on the ground.
14He breaks me with wound upon wound;
He runs at me like a warrior.
15“I have sewn sackcloth over my skin,
And #Job 30:19; Ps. 7:5laid my head in the dust.
16My face is flushed from weeping,
And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
17Although no violence is in my hands,
And my prayer is pure.
18“O earth, do not cover my blood,
And #Job 27:9; (Ps. 66:18)let my cry have no resting place!
19Surely even now #Gen. 31:50; Rom. 1:9; Phil. 1:8; 1 Thess. 2:5my witness is in heaven,
And my evidence is on high.
20My friends scorn me;
My eyes pour out tears to God.
21#Job 31:35; Eccl. 6:10; (Is. 45:9; Rom. 9:20)Oh, that one might plead for a man with God,
As a man pleads for his neighbor!
22For when a few years are finished,
I shall #Job 10:21; Eccl. 12:5go the way of no return.
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Job 16: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.