Job 16:13
 Job 16:13 
New International Version (©2011)
his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.

New Living Translation (©2007)
and now his archers surround me. His arrows pierce me without mercy. The ground is wet with my blood.

English Standard Version (©2001)
his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"His arrows surround me. Without mercy He splits my kidneys open; He pours out my gall on the ground.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground.

International Standard Version (©2012)
His archers surround me, slashing open my kidneys without pity; he pours out my gall on the ground.

NET Bible (©2006)
his archers surround me. Without pity he pierces my kidneys and pours out my gall on the ground.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
and his archers surrounded me. He slashes open my kidneys without mercy and spills my blood on the ground.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
His archers surround me, he slashes my kidneys asunder, and does not spare; he pours out my gall upon the ground.

American King James Version
His archers compass me round about, he splits my reins asunder, and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.

American Standard Version
His archers compass me round about; He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; He poureth out my gall upon the ground.

Douay-Rheims Bible
He hath compassed me round about with his lances, he hath wounded my loins, he hath not spared, and hath poured out my bowels on the earth.

Darby Bible Translation
His arrows encompass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

English Revised Version
His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

Webster's Bible Translation
His archers encompass me; he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

World English Bible
His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.

Young's Literal Translation
Go round against me do his archers. He splitteth my reins, and spareth not, He poureth out to the earth my gall.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:6-16 Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. What reason we have to bless God, that we are not making such complaints! Even good men, when in great troubles, have much ado not to entertain hard thoughts of God. Eliphaz had represented Job as unhumbled under his affliction: No, says Job, I know better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me. In this he reminds us of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and pronounced those blessed that mourn, for they shall be comforted.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - His archers compass me round about. God is represented, not as himself the shooter of the arrows, but as surrounding Job with a body of archers, who are under his command and carry out his will. So, generally, Scripture represents the judgments of God as carried out by interior agents (see 2 Samuel 24:16; 1 Chronicles 21:15; 2 Kings 19:35, etc.). He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare. The allusion is probably to Job's physical sufferings, which included severe pains in the lumbar region. He poureth out my gall upon the ground. The rupture of the gallbladder causes the contents to be sprit upon the ground.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

His archers compass me round about,.... Satan and his principalities and powers casting their fiery darts at him; or rather, his friends shooting their arrows, even bitter words, reproaches, and calumnies; or the various diseases of his body, his boils and ulcers, which were so many arrows shot into him, in every part of him all around, and gave him exquisite pain and anguish; besides the arrows of the Almighty, or that painful sensation he had of the wrath of God. This also is true of Christ, the antitype of Job and of Joseph; of the latter of which it is said, "the archers sorely grieved him, and shot at him, but his bow abode in strength", Genesis 49:23; so Satan and his ministers threw their fiery darts at Christ when on the cross, and the scribes and priests, his emissaries, surrounded him there, and shot out their reproachful and blasphemous words at him, and the justice of God smote him, and the law of God cast its curses on him. Gussetius renders the words, "his great ones" (g); and such Job's friends were, men of great substance, and lived in great credit and honour; some have supposed them to be kings, and such were those that opposed Christ, and distressed him, the rulers of the people, civil and ecclesiastic:

he cleaveth my reins asunder; by causing his arrows to enter into them, Lamentations 3:13; the consequence of which must be death; a man cannot live, at least long, after this is his case; though some think this is to be understood of the disorder of the stone in his reins or kidneys, which was very distressing to him:

and doth not spare; shows no mercy or pity, though in such sad circumstances and dreadful agonies; thus God spared not his own son, Romans 8:32;

he poureth out my gall upon the ground; which is done by piercing the gall bladder with the sword, or any such instrument, see Job 20:25; which must issue in death; and the design of both these clauses is to show, that Job looked upon his case irretrievable, and he here makes use of hyperbolical expressions to set it forth by.

(g) "Ejus magnates", Comment. Ebr. p. 773. "ejus magni", Montanus.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. his archers—The image of Job 16:12 is continued. God, in making me His "mark," is accompanied by the three friends, whose words wound like sharp arrows.

gall—put for a vital part; so the liver (La 2:11).


Job 16:13 Parallel Commentaries

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Job: Poor Comforters are You
12I was at ease, but he has broken me asunder: he has also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. 13His archers compass me round about, he splits my reins asunder, and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. 14He breaks me with breach on breach, he runs on me like a giant. …

Job 6:4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God's terrors are marshaled against me.
Job 19:12 His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
Job 20:25 He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him;
Job 25:3 Can his forces be numbered? On whom does his light not rise?
Lamentations 2:4 Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready. Like a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye; he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of Daughter Zion.
Lamentations 2:11 My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within; my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
Lamentations 3:11 he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.