Job 16:1-13 ▼

1 Then Job answered and said:

2 “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.

3 Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

4 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.

5 I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

6 “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

7 Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company.

8 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.

9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me.

11 God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

12 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;

13 his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.