Job 16:1-22
16 And Job proceeded to answer and say:
2 “I have heard many things like these.All of YOU are troublesome comforters!+
3 Is there an end to windy words?+Or what galls* you, that you answer?
4 I myself also could well speak as YOU men do.If only YOUR souls existed where my soul is,Would I be brilliant in words* against YOU,+And would I wag my head against YOU?+
5 I would strengthen YOU with the words of my mouth,+And the consolation of my own lips would hold back—.
6 If I do speak, my own pain is not held back,+And if I do cease doing so, what goes away from me?
7 Only now he has made me weary;+He has made all those assembling with me desolate.
8 You also seize me. It has become a witness,+So that my leanness rises up against me. In my face it testifies.
9 His very anger has torn [me] to pieces, and he harbors animosity+ against me.He actually grinds his teeth against me.+My adversary himself sharpens his eyes against me.+
10 They have opened their mouth wide against me,+With reproach they have struck my cheeks,In large number they mass themselves against me.+
11 God* hands me over to young boys,*And into the hands of wicked ones he throws me headlong.+
12 I had come to be at ease, but he proceeded to shake me up;+And he grabbed me by the back of the neck and proceeded to smash me,And he sets me up as a target for himself.
13 His archers+ encircle me;He splits open my kidneys+ and feels no compassion;He pours out my gallbladder to the very earth.
14 He keeps breaking through me with breach after breach;He runs at me like a mighty one.+
15 Sackcloth+ I have sewed together over my skin,And I have thrust my horn in the very dust.+
16 My face itself has become reddened from weeping,+And upon my eyelids there is deep shadow,*+
17 Although there is no violence upon my palms,And my prayer is pure.+
18 O earth, do not cover my blood!+And let there prove to be no place for my outcry!
19 Also now, look! in the heavens is one testifying about me,And my witness* is in the heights.+
20 My companions are spokesmen against me;+To God* my eye has looked sleeplessly.+
21 And the decision is to be made between an able-bodied man and God,The same as between a son of man* and his fellow.+
22 For just a few years* are to come,And by the path by which I shall not return I shall go away.+
Footnotes
^ Lit., “pains [offends].”
^ “Let me join words,” according to another derivation of the verb.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
^ Lit., “a young boy,” M; LXXVg, “an unjust one.”
^ Lit., “death shadow.”
^ “And my witness.” Heb., wesa·hadhiʹ, considered an Aram. loanword. See Ge 31:47 ftn, “Jegar-sahadutha.”
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElohʹah.
^ “Man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ “Just numbered years,” LXX.
