Job 16

¹Then Job answered:

²“I have heard many things like these;

³Is there no end to your long-winded speeches?

⁴I could also speak like you

⁵But I would encourage you with my mouth,

⁶Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved,

⁷Surely He has now exhausted me;

⁸You have bound me, and it has become a witness;

⁹His anger has torn me and opposed me;

¹⁰They open their mouths against me

¹¹God has delivered me to unjust men;

¹²I was at ease, but He shattered me;

¹³His archers surround me.

¹⁴He breaks me with wound upon wound;

¹⁵I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;

¹⁶My face is red with weeping,

¹⁷yet my hands are free of violence

¹⁸O earth, do not cover my blood;

¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven,

²⁰My friends are my scoffers

²¹Oh, that a man might plead with God

²²For when only a few years are past