Job 16 · Clearspring

Job Decries His Comforters

¹Then Job answered:+ ²“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.+ ³Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?+ ⁴I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.+ ⁵But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.+ ⁶Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?+ ⁷Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.+ ⁸You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.+ ⁹His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.+ ¹⁰They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.+ ¹¹God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.+ ¹²I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;+ ¹³His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.+ ¹⁴He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.+ ¹⁵I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.+ ¹⁶My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;+ ¹⁷yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.+ ¹⁸O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.+ ¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.+ ²⁰My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.+ ²¹Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!+ ²²For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.’’+

Job Decries His Comforters

Study Job 16