Job 16:1-13 ▼

1 Then Job answered and said:

2 I have heard this sort of thing many times. Troublesome comforters, all of you!

3 Is there no end to windy words? What sickness makes you rattle on?

4 I also could talk as you do, were you in my place. I could declaim over you, or wag my head at you;

5 I could strengthen you with talk, with mere chatter give relief.

6 If I speak, my pain is not relieved; if I stop speaking, nothing changes.

7 But now he has exhausted me; you have stunned all my companions.

8 You have shriveled me up; it is a witness, my gauntness rises up to testify against me;

9 His wrath tears and assails me, he gnashes his teeth against me; My enemy looks daggers at me.

10 They gape at me with their mouths; They strike me on the cheek with insults; they are all enlisted against me.

11 God has given me over to the impious; into the hands of the wicked he has cast me.

12 I was in peace, but he dislodged me, seized me by the neck, dashed me to pieces. He has set me up for a target;

13 his arrows strike me from all directions. He pierces my sides without mercy, pours out my gall upon the ground.