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16:1  Then Job spoke again:
16:2  "I have heard all this before. What miserable comforters you are!
16:3  Won't you ever stop blowing hot air? What makes you keep on talking?
16:4  I could say the same things if you were in my place. I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.
16:5  But if it were me, I would encourage you. I would try to take away your grief.
16:6  Instead, I suffer if I defend myself, and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.
16:7  "O God, you have ground me down and devastated my family.
16:8  As if to prove I have sinned, you've reduced me to skin and bones. My gaunt flesh testifies against me.
16:9  God hates me and angrily tears me apart. He snaps his teeth at me and pierces me with his eyes.
16:10  People jeer and laugh at me. They slap my cheek in contempt. A mob gathers against me.
16:11  God has handed me over to sinners. He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.
16:12  "I was living quietly until he shattered me. He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces. Then he set me up as his target,
16:13  and now his archers surround me. His arrows pierce me without mercy. The ground is wet with my blood.
16:14  Again and again he smashes against me, charging at me like a warrior.
16:15  I wear burlap to show my grief. My pride lies in the dust.
16:16  My eyes are red with weeping; dark shadows circle my eyes.
16:17  Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure.
16:18  "O earth, do not conceal my blood. Let it cry out on my behalf.
16:19  Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there on high.
16:20  My friends scorn me, but I pour out my tears to God.
16:21  I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.
16:22  For soon I must go down that road from which I will never return.