Job Says Friends Are Miserable Comforters
16 Then Job responded,
2 “I have heard many things like these;
(A)Miserable comforters are you all!
3 Is there no end to (B)windy words?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I too could speak like you,
If only I were in your place.
I could compose words against you
And (C)shake my head at you.
5 Or I could strengthen you with my mouth,
And the condolence of my lips could lessen your pain.
Job Says God Shattered Him
6 “If I speak, (D)my pain is not lessened,
And if I refrain, what pain leaves me?
7 But now He has (E)exhausted me;
You have laid (F)waste all my group of loved ones.
8 And you have shriveled me up,
(G)It has become a witness;
And my (H)infirmity rises up against me,
It testifies to my face.
9 His anger has (I)torn me and hunted me down,
He has (J)gnashed at me with His teeth;
My (K)enemy glares at me.
10 They have (L)gaped at me with their mouths,
They have (M)slapped me on the cheek with contempt;
They have (N)massed themselves against me.
11 God hands me over to criminals,
And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but (O)He shattered me,
And He has grasped me by my neck and shaken me to pieces;
He has also set me up as His (P)target.
13 His (Q)arrows surround me.
He splits my kidneys open without mercy;
He pours out (R)my bile on the ground.
14 He (S)breaks through me with breach after breach;
He (T)runs at me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed (U)sackcloth over my skin,
And (V)thrust my horn in the dust.
16 My face is flushed from (W)weeping,
(X)And deep darkness is on my eyelids,
17 Although there is no (Y)violence in my hands,
And (Z)my prayer is pure.
18 “Earth, do not cover my blood,
And may there be no resting place for my cry.
19 Even now, behold, (AA)my witness is in heaven,
And my advocate is (AB)on high.
20 My friends are my scoffers;
(AC)My eye weeps to God,
21 That one might plead for a man with God
As a son of man with his neighbor!
22 For when a few years are past,
I shall go the way (AD)of no return.
Footnotes
- Job 16:2
- Job 16:4
- Job 16:8
- Job 16:9
- Job 16:9
- Job 16:10
- Job 16:19
Cross references
- Job 16:2 : Job 13:4; 21:34
- Job 16:3 : Job 6:26
- Job 16:4 : Ps 22:7; 109:25; Zeph 2:15; Matt 27:39
- Job 16:6 : Job 9:27, 28
- Job 16:7 : Job 7:3
- Job 16:7 : Job 16:20; 19:13-15
- Job 16:8 : Job 10:17
- Job 16:8 : Job 19:20; Ps 109:24
- Job 16:9 : Job 19:11; Hos 6:1
- Job 16:9 : Ps 35:16; Lam 2:16; Acts 7:54
- Job 16:9 : Job 13:24; 33:10
- Job 16:10 : Ps 22:13
- Job 16:10 : Is 50:6; Lam 3:30; Acts 23:2
- Job 16:10 : Job 30:12; Ps 35:15
- Job 16:12 : Job 9:17
- Job 16:12 : Job 7:20; Lam 3:12
- Job 16:13 : Job 6:4; 19:12; 25:3
- Job 16:13 : Job 20:25
- Job 16:14 : Job 9:17
- Job 16:14 : Joel 2:7
- Job 16:15 : Gen 37:34; Ps 69:11
- Job 16:15 : Ps 7:5
- Job 16:16 : Job 16:20
- Job 16:16 : Job 24:17
- Job 16:17 : Is 59:6; Jon 3:8
- Job 16:17 : Job 27:4
- Job 16:19 : Gen 31:50; Job 19:25-27; Rom 1:9; Phil 1:8; 1 Thess 2:5
- Job 16:19 : Job 31:2
- Job 16:20 : Job 17:7
- Job 16:22 : Job 3:13
