Job 16:7-9

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

⁷But now [God] has taken away my strength. You [O Lord] have made desolate all my family and associates.

⁸You have laid firm hold on me and have shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; and my leanness [and wretched state of body] are further evidence [against me]; [they] testify to my face.

⁹[^[a]My adversary Satan] has torn [me] in his wrath and hated and persecuted me; he has gnashed upon me with his teeth; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

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Footnotes

Job 16:9 The next six verses leave the casual reader at a loss to know of whom Job is speaking—of God, of Eliphaz, or of Satan, each of whom has been the choice of various translators and commentators. But careful study of the text itself, particularly the eleventh verse, seems to leave no question that while Job is blaming God for abandoning him to Satanic forces, nevertheless the monstrous, appalling, and disgusting behavior which Job describes is by him being attributed to Satan himself. Verse eleven in any translation seems to reveal what the reader has known all along but which Job only now sees. He still does not understand God’s motive, but he is facing the facts as they are: he is at the mercy of Satan! But God’s thrilling and rewarding motive is still unknown to him.