Job 16
1But Job answered and said, 1
2I have heard many such things: 1 Poor comforters are ye all. 1
3What! is there any reason in vain words? 1 Or what will hinder thee from answering? 1
4I also will speak as ye do: 1 If indeed your soul were in my soul’s stead, 1 Then would I insult you with words, 1 And I would shake my head at you. 1
5And would there were strength in my mouth, 1 And I would not spare the movement of my lips. 1
6For if I should speak, I shall not feel the pain of my wound: 1 And if I should be silent, how shall I be wounded the less? 1
7But now he has made me weary, and a worn-out fool; 1 And thou hast laid hold of me. 1
8My falsehood has become a testimony, 1 And has risen up against me: 1 It has confronted me to my face. 1
9In his anger he has cast me down; 1 He has gnashed his teeth upon me: 1 The weapons of his robbers have fallen upon me. 1
10He has attacked me with the keen glances of his eyes; 1 With his sharp spear he has smitten me down upon my knees; 1 And they have run upon me with one accord. 1
11For the Lord has delivered me into the hands of unrighteous men, 1 And thrown me upon the ungodly. 1
12When I was at peace he distracted me: 1 He took me by the hair of the head, and plucked it out: 1 He set me up as a mark. 1
13They surrounded me with spears, 1 Aiming at my reins: 1 Without sparing me they poured out my gall upon the ground. 1
14They overthrew me with fall upon fall: 1 They ran upon me in their might. 1
15They sewed sackcloth upon my skin, 1 And my strength has been spent on the ground. 1
16My belly has been parched with wailing, 1 And darkness is on my eyelids. 1
17Yet there was no injustice in my hands, 1 And my prayer is pure. 1
18Earth, cover not over the blood of my flesh, 1 And let my cry have no place. 1
19And now, behold, my witness is in heaven, 1 And my advocate is on high. 1
20Let my supplication come to the Lord, 1 And let mine eye weep before him. 1
21Oh that a man might plead before the Lord, 1 Even as the son of man with his neighbor! 1
22But my years are numbered and their end come, 1 And I shall go by the way by which I shall not return.