16:1 Then Job replied:
16:2 “I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!
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, God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.
16:8 You have shriveled me up - 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 People 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 the ungodly 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, dark shadows ring my eyes;
16:17 yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
16:18 “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; / *Or My friends treat me with scorn
16:21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.
16:22 “Only a few years will pass before I take the path of no return.