Job 16

⁴You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.

⁵If only you would remain silent; for that would be your wisdom!

¹⁹My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

²⁶For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded.

¹⁶The latter do so in love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

⁶Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg?

²“How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?

³Ten times now you have reproached me; you shamelessly mistreat me.

²⁶Do you intend to correct my words, and treat as wind my cry of despair?

²“Does a wise man answer with empty counsel or fill his belly with the hot east wind?

³and he burned with anger against Job’s three friends because they had failed to refute Job, and yet had condemned him.

⁴Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because the others were older than he.

⁸and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us.

¹¹who must be silenced. For the sake of dishonorable gain, they undermine entire households and teach things they should not.

⁴⁶No one was able to answer a word, and from that day on no one dared to question Him any further.

²⁵I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.

⁷All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:

¹⁵All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

²¹This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.

¹⁶They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.

²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

⁹Oil and incense bring joy to the heart, and the counsel of a friend is sweetness to the soul.

³Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!

⁴Say to those with anxious hearts: “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.”

¹Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

¹⁷As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

¹⁴A despairing man should have the kindness of his friend, even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

²⁵I chose their course and presided as chief. So I dwelt as a king among his troops, as a comforter of the mourners.

¹“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁵From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.

¹⁶Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.

¹For the choirmaster. According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph. I cried out to God; I cried aloud to God to hear me.

²In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.

³So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed to me.

¹⁵the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹⁶While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The fire of God fell from heaven. It burned and consumed the sheep and the servants, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹¹My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, and do not loathe His rebuke;

¹²for the Lord disciplines the one He loves, as does a father the son in whom he delights.

¹³Therefore I am striking you severely, to ruin you because of your sins.

¹⁷There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest.

¹⁶I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

¹⁷You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.

²⁰My skin and flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”

²⁴My knees are weak from fasting, and my body grows lean and gaunt.

¹⁵So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

²⁷and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

¹⁶Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.

²⁴Why do You hide Your face and consider me as Your enemy?

¹⁶All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”

¹Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.

¹¹His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.

⁴You who tear yourself in anger—should the earth be forsaken on your account, or the rocks be moved from their place?

¹⁵But when I stumbled, they assembled in glee; they gathered together against me. Assailants I did not know slandered me without ceasing.

¹³They open their jaws against me like lions that roar and maul.

⁶I offered My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard. I did not hide My face from scorn and spittle.

³⁰Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.

¹Now, O daughter of troops, mobilize your troops; for a siege is laid against us! With a rod they will strike the cheek of the judge of Israel.

²At this, the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.

¹²Do not hand me over to the will of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence.

¹⁴Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.

⁸You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.

⁷So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

¹³One day, while Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

¹⁴a messenger came and reported to Job: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,

³²For God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on everyone.

²⁰If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to You?

¹¹He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.

¹²He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.

⁴He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.

¹⁷For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.

¹⁹But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness.

⁴who have risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

²⁵It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

¹¹My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.

³²He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

²³The archers attacked him with bitterness; they aimed at him in hostility.

¹²If one does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has bent and strung His bow.

¹³He has prepared His deadly weapons; He ordains His arrows with fire.

¹⁷For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.

⁷They charge like mighty men; they scale the walls like men of war. Each one marches in formation, not swerving from the course.

⁸And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

³Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.

⁴He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.

⁷Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.

³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

⁵then may my enemy pursue me and overtake me; may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust. Selah

²⁷When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He lay down in sackcloth and walked around meekly.

¹²On that day the Lord God of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

⁵Do not lift up your horn against heaven or speak with an outstretched neck.’”

¹⁰Those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder from heaven against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth and will give power to His king. He will exalt the horn of His anointed.”

¹⁶For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.

³⁴Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”

³For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.

⁴My heart is afflicted, and withered like grass; I even forget to eat my bread.

⁷My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.

³When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

⁹Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.

⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

¹⁸If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

¹⁹But God has surely heard; He has attended to the sound of my prayer.

⁶I will cling to my righteousness and never let go. As long as I live, my conscience will not accuse me.

⁷May my enemy be like the wicked and my opponent like the unjust.

⁵But if you would earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,

⁶if you are pure and upright, even now He will rouse Himself on your behalf and restore your righteous estate.

³O Lord my God, if I have done this, if injustice is on my hands,

⁴if I have rewarded my ally with evil, if I have plundered my foe without cause,

³⁴For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

²¹For behold, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.

⁷For the blood she shed is still within her; she poured it out on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.

¹⁸If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

¹⁹But God has surely heard; He has attended to the sound of my prayer.

¹¹Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

⁵Do not cover up their iniquity or let their sin be blotted out from Your sight, for they have provoked the builders.

²⁹O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!

⁹God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you

⁵⁰If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, although no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”

⁵As you know, we never used words of flattery or any pretext for greed. God is our witness!

¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless our conduct was among you who believed.

¹I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit.

²“Dominion and awe belong to God; He establishes harmony in the heights of heaven.

⁷During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.

²I pour out my complaint before Him; I reveal my trouble to Him.

²Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.

⁴I am a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God, and He answered. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.

⁵The one at ease scorns misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.

⁴In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.

¹¹But the scribes and Pharisees were filled with rage and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

¹²In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.

¹⁰Whatever exists was named long ago, and it is known what man is; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he.

⁹Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

¹And the Lord said to Job:

²“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who argues with God give an answer.”

³⁵(Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser compose an indictment.

²²Then call me, and I will answer, or let me speak, and You can reply.

¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?

¹⁴When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, until my renewal comes.

⁹As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.

¹⁰He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no more.

⁵Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,

⁵when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.