16:1 Then Job answered and said,
16:2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters [are]
ye all.
16:3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that
thou answerest?
16:4 I also could speak as ye [do]: if your soul were in my
soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake my
head at you.
16:5 [But] I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving
of my lips should assuage [your grief].
16:6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and [though] I
forbear, what am I eased?
16:7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all
my company.
16:8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, [which] is a witness
[against me]: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness
to my face.
16:9 He teareth [me] in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth
upon me with his teeth; my enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
16:10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have
smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered
themselves against me.
16:11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over
into the hands of the wicked.
16:12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also
taken [me] by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up
for his mark.
16:13 His archers encompass me; he cleaveth my reins asunder,
and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
16:14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me
like a giant.
16:15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn
in the dust.
16:16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [are] the
shades of death;
16:17 Not for [any] injustice in my hands: also my prayer [is]
pure.
16:18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no
place.
16:19 Also now, behold, my witness [is] in heaven, and my record
[is] on high.
16:20 My friends scorn me: [but] my eye poureth out [tears] to
God.
16:21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man
[pleadeth] for his neighbor!
16:22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way
[whence] I shall not return.
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