en_cjb - Job 16 - Ozzuu Bible

¹ In response Iyov said:

² “I have heard this stuff so often! Such sorry comforters, all of you!

³ Is there no end to words of wind? What provokes you to answer this way?

⁴ “If I were in your place, I too could speak as you do — I could string phrases together against you and shake my head at you.

⁵ I could ‘strengthen’ you with my mouth, with lip service I could ‘ease your grief.’

⁶ If I speak, my own pain isn’t eased; and if I don’t speak, it still doesn’t leave.

⁷ “But now he has worn me out; you have desolated this whole community of mine.

⁸ Besides, you have shriveled me up; and this serves to witness against me. My being so thin rises up against me and testifies to my face.

⁹ He tears me apart in his anger; he holds a grudge against me; he gnashes on me with his teeth. “My enemies look daggers at me.

¹⁰ Wide-mouthed, they gape at me; with scorn, they slap my cheeks; they gather themselves together against me.

¹¹ “God delivers me to the perverse, throws me into the hands of the wicked.

¹² I was at peace, and he shook me apart. Yes, he grabbed me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target —

¹³ his archers surrounded me. He slashes my innards and shows no mercy, he pours my gall on the ground.

¹⁴ He breaks in on me again and again, attacking me like a warrior.

¹⁵ “I sewed sackcloth together to cover my skin and laid my pride in the dust;

¹⁶ my face is red from crying, and on my eyelids is a death-dark shadow.

¹⁷ Yet my hands are free from violence, and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ “Earth, don’t cover my blood; don’t let my cry rest [without being answered].

¹⁹ Even now, my witness is in heaven; my advocate is there on high.

²⁰ With friends like these as intercessors, my eyes pour out tears to God,

²¹ that he would arbitrate between a man and God, just as one does for his fellow human being.

²² For I have but few years left before I leave on the road of no return.