16
Job

Job's Lament and Plea for a Mediator

Job 16:1-17:16
1Then Job answered and said, 2I have heard many things like these; you are all comforters of trouble. 3Is there an end to words of spirit, or what makes you sick that you answer? 4I also would speak as you do; if your soul were in place of my soul, I would join words with you and shake my head over you. 5I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would restrain itself. 6If I speak, my pain is not restrained, and if I cease, how much of it departs from me? 7Surely now it has wearied me; you have laid waste all my company. 8It has seized me as a witness; it has come to pass, and my lie has risen up before my face; it answers. 9His anger has torn me and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. 10They have opened their mouths wide against me; with reproach they strike my cheek; together they close in upon me. 11God delivers me to the unjust one, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. 12I was at ease, yet he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target. 13His archers surround me; he pierces my kidneys without pity; he pours out my gall on the earth. 14He breaches me with breach upon breach; he rushes upon me like a mighty man. 15I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin and thrust my horn into the dust. 16My face is reddened from weeping, and darkness rests upon my eyelids. 17There is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. 18O earth, do not cover my blood, and let there be no place for my outcry. 19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high. 20My friends who mock me; my eye pours out tears to God. 21One might plead for a man with God, or for a son of man with his neighbor. 22For a few years will pass, and I shall go a way from which I shall not return.
Chapter 17
1My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the graves are ready for me. 2Surely mockers are with me, and my eye dwells on their rebellion. 3Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will strike hands with me? 4For you have hidden understanding from their hearts; therefore you will not exalt them. 5He tells it to his neighbors as a portion, and the eyes of his children fail. 6He has made me a byword among the peoples, and I have become one in whose face they spit. 7My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow. 8The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent is stirred up against the profane. 9The righteous holds fast his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger. 10But you, all of you, return now and come, for I shall not find a wise man among you. 11My days have passed; my plans are torn away; the possessions of my heart are gone. 12They turn night into day; the light is near because of the darkness. 13If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I spread my bed in darkness, 14if I call the pit my father and the worm my mother and my sister, 15where then is my hope? Who will see it? 16Will they go down with me to the bars of Sheol, when rest lies together in the dust?
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