16:1	Then Job replied:
16:2	"I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all!
16:3	Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?
16:4	I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.
16:5	But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
16:6	"Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.
16:7	Surely, O God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.
16:8	You have bound me--and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
16:9	God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
16:10	Men open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.
16:11	God has turned me over to evil men and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
16:12	All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;
16:13	his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
16:14	Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.
16:15	"I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.
16:16	My face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes;
16:17	yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
16:18	"O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!
16:19	Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
16:20	My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;
16:21	on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.
16:22	"Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return.
	Table of Contents