Job 16 :: New International Version (NIV)

Job

Job 16:1Then Job replied:

Job 16:2“I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!

Job 16:3Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?

Job 16:4I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.

Job 16:5

Job 16:5But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

Job 16:6

Job 16:6“Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.

Job 16:7

Job 16:7Surely, God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.

Job 16:8

Job 16:8You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

Job 16:9

Job 16:9God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

Job 16:10

Job 16:10People open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.

Job 16:11

Job 16:11God has turned me over to the ungodly and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

Job 16:12

Job 16:12All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;

Job 16:13

Job 16:13his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.

Job 16:14

Job 16:14Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.

Job 16:15

Job 16:15“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.

Job 16:16

Job 16:16My face is red with weeping, dark shadows ring my eyes;

Job 16:17

Job 16:17yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.

Job 16:18

Job 16:18“Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!

Job 16:19

Job 16:19Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.

Job 16:20

Job 16:20My intercessor is my friend[fn] as my eyes pour out tears to God;

Job 16:21

Job 16:21on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.

Job 16:22

Job 16:22“Only a few years will pass before I take the path of no return.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(16:20)

Or My friends treat me with scorn

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