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Job 16 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

Job 16:1

Job 16:1Then Job answered and said:

Job 16:2

Job 16:2“I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.

Job 16:3

Job 16:3Shall windy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?

Job 16:4

Job 16:4I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and shake my head at you.

Job 16:5

Job 16:5I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

Job 16:6

Job 16:6“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

Job 16:7

Job 16:7Surely now God has worn me out;
he has[fn] made desolate all my company.

Job 16:8

Job 16:8And he has shriveled me up,
which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.

Job 16:9

Job 16:9He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

Job 16:10

Job 16:10Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.

Job 16:11

Job 16:11God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

Job 16:12

Job 16:12I 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 target;

Job 16:13

Job 16:13his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
he pours out my gall on the ground.

Job 16:14

Job 16:14He breaks me with breach upon breach;
he runs upon me like a warrior.

Job 16:15

Job 16:15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have laid my strength in the dust.

Job 16:16

Job 16:16My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is deep darkness,

Job 16:17

Job 16:17although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.

Job 16:18

Job 16:18“O earth, cover not my blood,
and let my cry find no resting place.

Job 16:19

Job 16:19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.

Job 16:20

Job 16:20My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,

Job 16:21

Job 16:21that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as[fn] a son of man does with his neighbor.

Job 16:22

Job 16:22For when a few years have come
I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV Footnotes
Hebrew you have; also verse 8
Hebrew and
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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

Job Chapter 16 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras