VerseAI

NIV

Job 16

  1. 1<pb/>Then Job replied:
  2. 2<pb/><t>“I have heard many things like these;</t> <t>you are miserable comforters, all of you!</t>
  3. 3<t>Will your long-winded speeches never end?</t> <t>What ails you that you keep on arguing?</t>
  4. 4<t>I also could speak like you,</t> <t>if you were in my place;</t> <t>I could make fine speeches against you</t> <t>and shake my head at you.</t>
  5. 5<t>But my mouth would encourage you;</t> <t>comfort from my lips would bring you relief. <pb/></t>
  6. 6<t>“Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;</t> <t>and if I refrain, it does not go away.</t>
  7. 7<t>Surely, God, you have worn me out;</t> <t>you have devastated my entire household.</t>
  8. 8<t>You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;</t> <t>my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.</t>
  9. 9<t>God assails me and tears me in his anger</t> <t>and gnashes his teeth at me;</t> <t>my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.</t>
  10. 10<t>People open their mouths to jeer at me;</t> <t>they strike my cheek in scorn</t> <t>and unite together against me.</t>
  11. 11<t>God has turned me over to the ungodly</t> <t>and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.</t>
  12. 12<t>All was well with me, but he shattered me;</t> <t>he seized me by the neck and crushed me.</t> <t>He has made me his target;</t>
  13. 13<t>his archers surround me.</t> <t>Without pity, he pierces my kidneys</t> <t>and spills my gall on the ground.</t>
  14. 14<t>Again and again he bursts upon me;</t> <t>he rushes at me like a warrior. <pb/></t>
  15. 15<t>“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin</t> <t>and buried my brow in the dust.</t>
  16. 16<t>My face is red with weeping,</t> <t>dark shadows ring my eyes;</t>
  17. 17<t>yet my hands have been free of violence</t> <t>and my prayer is pure. <pb/></t>
  18. 18<t>“Earth, do not cover my blood;</t> <t>may my cry never be laid to rest!</t>
  19. 19<t>Even now my witness is in heaven;</t> <t>my advocate is on high.</t>
  20. 20<t>My intercessor is my friend<f>[22]</f></t> <t>as my eyes pour out tears to God;</t>
  21. 21<t>on behalf of a man he pleads with God</t> <t>as one pleads for a friend. <pb/></t>
  22. 22<t>“Only a few years will pass</t> <t>before I take the path of no return.</t>