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