| 章 |
| 16:1 |
Then Job replied:
|
| 16:2 |
"I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all!
|
| 16:3 |
Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?
|
| 16:4 |
I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.
|
| 16:5 |
But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
|
| 16:6 |
"Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.
|
| 16:7 |
Surely, O God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.
|
| 16:8 |
You have bound me--and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
|
| 16:9 |
God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
|
| 16:10 |
Men open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.
|
| 16:11 |
God has turned me over to evil men and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
|
| 16:12 |
All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;
|
| 16:13 |
his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
|
| 16:14 |
Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.
|
| 16:15 |
"I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.
|
| 16:16 |
My face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes;
|
| 16:17 |
yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
|
| 16:18 |
"O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!
|
| 16:19 |
Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
|
| 16:20 |
My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;
|
| 16:21 |
on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.
|
| 16:22 |
"Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return.
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