Job
Chapter 16
1 Then Job replied and spoke,
2 I have heard many things like this: you are all terrible at comforting.
3 Will empty talk ever stop? What makes you so bold to answer?
4 I could talk like you if I were in your place. I could make many accusations against you and shake my head at you.
5 I would encourage you with my words, and my talking would ease your sadness.
6 Even if I talk, my sadness isn’t lessened; and if I stay quiet, how am I comforted?
7 But now he has made me tired: you have left all my friends alone.
8 You have covered me with wrinkles, which stand as proof against me; my thinness is a testimony to my face.
9 He violently attacks me in his anger, hating me; he grinds his teeth at me; my enemy glares at me with sharp eyes.
10 They opened their mouths wide at me; they slapped my face in insult; they joined together against me.
11 God has given me to the bad people, and put me into the hands of the evil ones.
12 I was comfortable, but God has torn me apart; He has grabbed my neck and shattered me, and made me a target.
13 His archers surround me, he splits my insides apart, and shows no mercy; he spills my bile on the ground.
14 He shatters me, breaking me over and over; he charges at me like a giant.
15 I have put rough cloth on my skin, and put my strength in the dirt.
16 I cry so much my face is dirty, and my eyelids are dark like death.
17 I have done nothing wrong, and my prayer is sincere.
18 Earth, do not hide my blood, and do not let my cry go unheard.
19 Even now, my witness is in heaven, and my evidence is up high.
20 My friends mock me, but I cry to God.
21 I wish someone could talk to God for a person, just as someone argues for a friend.
22 In a few years, I will go on a path from which I won’t come back.