Job 16

^{Job 16:1} Then Job answered:

^{Job 16:2} “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.

^{Job 16:3} Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?

^{Job 16:4} I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

^{Job 16:5} But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

^{Job 16:6} Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?

^{Job 16:7} Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.

^{Job 16:8} You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

^{Job 16:9} His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

^{Job 16:10} They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.

^{Job 16:11} God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.

^{Job 16:12} I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;

^{Job 16:13} His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.

^{Job 16:14} He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.

^{Job 16:15} I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.

^{Job 16:16} My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;

^{Job 16:17} yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.

^{Job 16:18} O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.

^{Job 16:19} Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.

^{Job 16:20} My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.

^{Job 16:21} Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!

^{Job 16:22} For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.