Job 16
16
Job’s Reply to Eliphaz
1Then Job answered:
2I have heard many things like these.
You are all miserable comforters. # Jb 13:4; Ps 69:20; Ec 4:1
3Is there no end to your empty # Lit windy ; Jb 15:2 # Jb 15:2 words?
What provokes you that you continue testifying?
4If you were in my place I could also talk like you.
I could string words together against you
and shake my head at you.
5Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,
and the consolation from my lips would bring relief. # Dt 3:28; Jb 4:4; Is 41:10
6Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
and if I hold back, what have I lost?
7Surely He # Or it has now exhausted me.
You have devastated my entire family.
8You have shriveled me up # Or have seized me ; Hb obscure — it has become a witness;
My frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.
9His anger tears at me, and He harasses # Gn 49:23; Jb 30:21; Ps 55:3 me.
He gnashes His teeth at me.
My enemy pierces me with His eyes.
10They open their mouths against me
and strike my cheeks with contempt; # 1Kg 22:24; Lm 3:30; Mc 5:1
they join themselves together against me.
11God hands me over to unjust men; # LXX, Vg; MT reads to a boy
He throws me into the hands of the wicked.
12I was at ease, but He shattered me;
He seized me by the scruff of the neck
and smashed me to pieces.
He set me up as His target; # Jb 7:20; Lm 3:12
13His archers # Or arrows surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and pours my bile on the ground.
14He breaks through my defenses again and again; # Lit through me, breach on breach
He charges at me like a warrior. # Jb 30:14; Jl 2:7
15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
I have buried my strength # Lit horn in the dust. # Jb 30:19; Ps 7:5; 75:10
16My face has grown red with weeping,
and darkness # Ps 44:19; 107:10; Jr 13:16 covers my eyes,
17although my hands are free from violence # Is 53:9; 59:6; Jnh 3:8
and my prayer is pure.
18Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry for help find no resting place. # Gn 4:10; Is 26:21; Ezk 24:7-8
19Even now my witness is in heaven,
and my advocate is in the heights! # Jb 22:12; Rm 1:9; 1Th 2:5
20My friends scoff at me
as I weep before God.
21I wish that someone might arbitrate
between a man and God # Jb 31:35; Ec 6:10; Is 45:9
just as a man pleads for his friend.
22For only a few years will pass
before I go the way of no return.
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Job 16: HCSB
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