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