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

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