Job Chapter 16 ESV

1Job reproveth his friends of inhumanity toward him: 7he pathetically describeth his unhappy case; 17still protesting his innocence, for which he maketh appeal to God.
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “I have heard 1many such things; 2miserable comforters are you all.
3 Shall 1windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
4 I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you and 1shake my head at you.
5 I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
6 “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
7 Surely now God has worn me out; 1he hasa made desolate all my company.
8 And he has shriveled me up, which is 1a witness against me, and my 2leanness has risen up against me; it testifies to my face.
9 He has 1torn me in his wrath 2and hated me; he has 3gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10 Men have 1gaped at me with their mouth; they have 2struck me insolently on the cheek; they 3mass themselves together against me.
11 God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his 1target;
13 his 1archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys 2and does not spare; he 3pours out my gall on the ground.
14 He breaks me with 1breach upon breach; he 2runs upon me like a warrior.
15 I have sewed 1sackcloth upon my skin and have laid 2my strength 3in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is 1deep darkness,
17 although there is no 1violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, 1cover not my blood, and let my 2cry find no resting place.
19 Even now, behold, my 1witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is 2on high.
20 My friends 1scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,
21 that he would 1argue the case of a man with God, asa a son of man does with his neighbor.
22 For when a few years have come I shall go the way 1from which I shall not return.

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