Job’s Reply to Eliphaz
Job 16
1 Then Job answered:
2 I have heard many things like these.
You are all miserable comforters. u
3 Is there no end to your empty B,v words?
What provokes you that you continue testifying?
4 If you were in my place I could also talk like you.
I could string words together against you
and shake my head at you.
5 Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,
and the consolation from my lips would bring relief. w
6 If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?
7 Surely he C has now exhausted me.
You have devastated my entire family.
8 You have shriveled me up D—it has become a witness;
my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.
9 His anger tears at me, and he harasses x me.
He gnashes his teeth at me.
My enemy pierces me with his eyes.
10 They open their mouths against me
and strike my cheeks with contempt; y
they join themselves together against me.
11 God hands me over to the unjust; E
he throws me to the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the scruff of the neck
and smashed me to pieces.
He set me up as his target; z
13 his archers F surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and pours my bile on the ground.
14 He breaks through my defenses again and again; G
he charges at me like a warrior. a
15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
I have buried my strength H in the dust. b
16 My face has grown red with weeping,
and darkness c covers my eyes,
17 although my hands are free from violence d
and my prayer is pure.
18 Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry for help find no resting place. e
19 Even now my witness is in heaven,
and my advocate is in the heights! f
as I weep before God.
21 I wish that someone might argue for a man with God g
just as anyone I would for a friend.
22 For only a few years will pass
before I go the way of no return.