Job 16

₂I have heard many such things:

Miserable comforters are ye all.

₃Shall vain words have an end?

Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

₄I also could speak as ye do:

If your soul were in my soul's stead,

I could heap up words against you,

And shake mine head at you.

₅But I would strengthen you with my mouth,

And the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.

₆Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged:

And though I forbear, what am I eased?

₇But now he hath made me weary:

Thou hast made desolate all my company.

₈And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me:

And my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

₉He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me:

He gnasheth upon me with his teeth;

Mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

₁₀They have gaped upon me with their mouth;

They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully;

They have gathered themselves together against me.

₁₁God hath delivered me to the ungodly,

And turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

₁₂I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder:

He hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces,

And set me up for his mark.

₁₃His archers compass me round about,

He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare;

He poureth out my gall upon the ground.

₁₄He breaketh me with breach upon breach,

He runneth upon me like a giant.

₁₅I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin,

And defiled my horn in the dust.

₁₆My face is foul with weeping,

And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

₁₇Not for any injustice in mine hands:

Also my prayer is pure.

₁₈O earth, cover not thou my blood,

And let my cry have no place.

₁₉Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

And my record is on high.

₂₀My friends scorn me:

but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

₂₁O that one might plead for a man with God,

As a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

₂₂When a few years are come,

Then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.