Job 16
Expanded Bible
Job Answers Eliphaz
16 Then Job answered:
2 “I have heard many things like these.
You are all ·painful [or troublesome] comforters!
3 Will your ·long-winded speeches [L windy words] never end?
What ·makes [L provokes] you keep on ·arguing [L responding]?
4 I also could speak as you do
if you were in my place.
I could ·make great speeches [L join words] against you
and shake my head at you [C like wagging a finger at someone].
5 But, instead, I would ·encourage you [L strengthen you with my mouth],
and ·my words [L the words of my lips] would bring you ·relief [comfort].
6 “Even if I speak, my pain is not less,
and if I don’t speak, it still does not go away.
7 ·God, you have [L He has] surely ·taken away my strength [worn me out]
and ·destroyed [or stunned] ·my whole family [or everyone around me; L my assembly].
8 You have ·made me thin and weak [shriveled me up; or bound me],
·and this shows I have done wrong [L as a witness against me].
9 God ·attacks me and tears me with anger [L preys on me and hates me];
he ·grinds [gnashes] his teeth at me;
my enemy ·stares at me with his angry eyes [L sharpens his eyes at me].
10 People open their mouths ·to make fun of [L wide at] me
and hit my cheeks to ·insult [or reproach] me.
They ·join [congregate; assemble] together against me.
11 God has turned me over to evil people
and has ·handed [thrown] me over to the wicked.
12 ·Everything was fine with me [L I was at ease],
but God ·broke me into pieces [shattered me];
he ·held [grabbed; seized] me by the neck and ·crushed [mauled] me.
He has ·made me [set me up as] his target;
13 his archers surround me.
He ·stabs [L splits open] my kidneys without mercy;
he spills my ·blood [L gall] on the ground.
14 ·Again and again God attacks me [L He breaches me, breach after breach];
he runs at me like a soldier.
15 “I have sewed ·rough cloth over my skin to show my sadness [sackcloth over my skin; C traditional mourning clothes]
and have buried my ·face [L horn] in the dust [C a sign of grief; like an animal lowering its horn].
16 My face is red from crying;
I have ·dark circles [deep darkness] around my eyes.
17 Yet my hands have never done anything ·cruel [violent],
and my prayer is pure.
18 “Earth, please do not cover up my blood.
Don’t let my cry ever ·stop being heard [find a place of rest]!
19 Even now I have ·one who speaks for me [L a witness] in heaven;
the one who ·is on my side [L testifies for me] is high above.
20 ·The one who speaks for me is my friend [or My friends scorn me].
My eyes pour out tears to God.
21 He ·begs God [negotiates/arbitrates with God] on behalf of a human
as a person ·begs for [negotiates/arbitrates with] his friend.
22 “Only a few years will pass
before I go on the journey of no return [C at his death].
The Expanded Bible, Copyright © 2011 Thomas Nelson Inc. All rights reserved.
