Job 16

_1-2I have heard words like that before;

the comfort you give is only torment.

₃Are you going to keep on talking for ever?

Do you always have to have the last word?

₄If you were in my place and I in yours,

I could say everything you are saying.

I could shake my head wisely

and drown you with a flood of words.

₅I could strengthen you with advice

and keep talking to comfort you.

₆But nothing I say helps,

and being silent does not calm my pain.

₇You have worn me out, God;

you have let my family be killed.

₈You have seized me; you are my enemy.

I am skin and bones,

and people take that as proof of my guilt.

₉In anger God tears me limb from limb;

he glares at me with hate.

₁₀People sneer at me;

they crowd round me and slap my face.

₁₁God has handed me over to evil people.

₁₂I was living in peace,

but God took me by the throat

and battered me and crushed me.

God uses me for target practice

₁₃and shoots arrows at me from every side —

arrows that pierce and wound me;

and even then he shows no pity.

₁₄He wounds me again and again;

he attacks like a soldier gone mad with hate.

₁₅I mourn and wear clothes made of sackcloth,

and I sit here in the dust defeated.

₁₆I have cried until my face is red,

and my eyes are swollen and circled with shadows,

₁₇but I am not guilty of any violence,

and my prayer to God is sincere.

₁₈O Earth, don't hide the wrongs done to me!

Don't let my call for justice be silenced!

₁₉There is someone in heaven

to stand up for me and take my side.

₂₀My friends scorn me;

my eyes pour out tears to God.

₂₁I want someone to plead with God for me,

as one pleads for a friend.

₂₂My years are passing now,

and I walk the road of no return.