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 mine head at you.
16:5 [But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage [your grief].
16:6 Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: 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; mine 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 together 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 compass me round about, 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 [is] the shadow of death;
16:17 Not for [any] injustice in mine 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] mine eye poureth out [tears] unto God.
16:21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man [pleadeth] for his neighbour!
16:22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way [whence] I shall not return.
17:1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves [are ready] for me.
17:2 [Are there] not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
17:3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who [is] he [that] will strike hands with me?
17:4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt [them].
17:5 He that speaketh flattery to [his] friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
17:6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
17:7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members [are] as a shadow.
17:8 Upright [men] shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
17:9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
17:10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find [one] wise [man] among you.
17:11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, [even] the thoughts of my heart.
17:12 They change the night into day: the light [is] short because of darkness.
17:13 If I wait, the grave [is] mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
17:14 I have said to corruption, Thou [art] my father: to the worm, [Thou art] my mother, and my sister.
17:15 And where [is] now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when [our] rest together [is] in the dust.