Job 16

¹ Then Job answered and said:

² I have heard this sort of thing many times. Wearisome comforters are you all!

³ Is there no end to windy words? Or what sickness have you that you speak on?

⁴ I also could talk as you do, were you in my place. I could declaim over you, or wag my head at you;

⁵ I could strengthen you with talk, or shake my head with silent lips.

⁶ If I speak, this pain I have will not be checked; if I leave off, it will not depart from me.

⁷ But now that I am exhausted and stunned, all my company has closed in on me.

⁸ As a witness there rises up my traducer, speaking openly against me;

⁹ I am the prey his wrath assails, he gnashes his teeth against me. My enemies lord it over me;

¹⁰ their mouths are agape to bite me. They smite me on the cheek insultingly; they are all enlisted against me.

¹¹ God has given me over to the impious; into the clutches of the wicked he has cast me.

¹² I was in peace, but he dislodged me; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. He has set me up for a target;

¹³ his arrows strike me from all directions, He pierces my sides without mercy, he pours out my gall upon the ground.

¹⁴ He pierces me with thrust upon thrust; he attacks me like a warrior.

¹⁵ I have fastened sackcloth over my skin, and have laid my brow in the dust.

¹⁶ My face is inflamed with weeping and there is darkness over my eyes,

¹⁷ Although my hands are free from violence, and my prayer is sincere.

¹⁸ O earth, cover not my blood, nor let my outcry come to rest!

¹⁹ Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my spokesman is on high.

²⁰ My friends it is who wrong me; before God my eyes drop tears,

²¹ That he may do justice for a mortal in his presence and decide between a man and his neighbor.

²² For my years are numbered now, and I am on a journey from which I shall not return.