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 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.