Job 16

Contemporary English Version

Job's Reply to Eliphaz

I Have Often Heard This

16 Job said:
²I have often heard this,
    and it offers no comfort.
³So why don't you keep quiet?
    What's bothering you?
⁴If I were in your place,
it would be easy to criticize
    or to give advice.
⁵But I would offer hope
    and comfort instead.

⁶If I speak, or if I don't,
I hurt all the same.
    My torment continues.
⁷God has worn me down
    and destroyed my family;
⁸my shriveled up skin proves
    that I am his prisoner.
⁹God is my hateful enemy,
glaring at me and attacking
    with his sharp teeth.
¹⁰Everyone is against me;
    they sneer and slap my face.
¹¹And God is the one
who handed me over
    to this merciless mob.

Everything Was Going Well

¹²Everything was going well,
until God grabbed my neck
    and shook me to pieces.
God set me up as the target
¹³    for his arrows,
and without showing mercy,
he slashed my stomach open,
    spilling out my insides.
¹⁴God never stops attacking,
¹⁵    and so, in my sorrow
I dress in sackcloth^[a]
    and sit in the dust.
¹⁶My face is red with tears,
and dark shadows
    circle my eyes,
¹⁷though I am not violent,
    and my prayers are sincere.

¹⁸If I should die,
I beg the earth not to cover
    my cry for justice.
¹⁹^(A) Even now, God in heaven
is both my witness
    and my protector.
²⁰My friends have rejected me,
    but God is the one I beg^[b]
²¹to show that I am right,
    just as a friend should.
²²Because in only a few years,
    I will be dead and gone.

Footnotes

16.15 sackcloth: A rough, dark-colored cloth made from goat hair and used to make grain sacks. It was worn in times of trouble or sorrow.
16.20 My friends … beg: Or “God is my friend, and he is the one I beg.”