Job 16 Parallel Bible Translations

Job 16 ▼
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1 Then Job spoke again: Then Job answered and said: Then Job replied:
2 “I have heard all this before. What miserable comforters you are! “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. “I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!
3 Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air? What makes you keep on talking? Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?
4 I could say the same things if you were in my place. I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you. I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. 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.
5 But if it were me, I would encourage you. I would try to take away your grief. I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
6 Instead, I suffer if I defend myself, and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak. “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.
7 “O God, you have ground me down and devastated my family. Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. Surely, God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.
8 As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones. My gaunt flesh testifies against me. And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face. You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
9 God hates me and angrily tears me apart. He snaps his teeth at me and pierces me with his eyes. He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
10 People jeer and laugh at me. They slap my cheek in contempt. A mob gathers against me. Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. People open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.
11 God has handed me over to sinners. He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked. God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. God has turned me over to the ungodly and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
12 “I was living quietly until he shattered me. He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces. Then he set me up as his target, I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;
13 and now his archers surround me. His arrows pierce me without mercy. The ground is wet with my blood. his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
14 Again and again he smashes against me, charging at me like a warrior. He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.
15 I wear burlap to show my grief. My pride lies in the dust. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.
16 My eyes are red with weeping; dark shadows circle my eyes. My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, My face is red with weeping, dark shadows ring my eyes;
17 Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure. although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, do not conceal my blood. Let it cry out on my behalf. “O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. “Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!
19 Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there on high. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
20 My friends scorn me, but I pour out my tears to God. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;
21 I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends. that he would argue the case of a man with God, as a son of man does with his neighbor. on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.
22 For soon I must go down that road from which I will never return. For when a few years have come I shall go the way from which I shall not return. “Only a few years will pass before I take the path of no return.
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