Job 16:1-13 ▼

1 Then Job (hated) answered:

2 “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you⁺ all.

3 Is there no end to your long-winded {ruach} speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?

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⁺.

5 But I would encourage you⁺ with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

6 Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?

7 Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.

8 You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

9 His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

10 They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.

11 God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.

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;

13 His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.