Job 16:1-16

Job 1Then Job replied:

2“I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!

3Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.

5But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

6“Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.

7Surely, God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.

8You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

9God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

10People open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.

11God has turned me over to the ungodly and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

12All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;

13his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.

14Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.

15“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.

16My face is red with weeping, dark shadows ring my eyes;