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16:1  Then Job answered:
16:2  I have heard many things like these. You are all miserable comforters.
16:3  Is there no end to your empty words? What provokes you that you continue testifying?
16:4  If you were in my place I could also talk like you. I could string words together against you and shake my head at you.
16:5  Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.
16:6  If I speak, my suffering is not relieved, and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?
16:7  Surely he has now exhausted me. You have devastated my entire family.
16:8  You have shriveled me up—it has become a witness; my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.
16:9  His anger tears at me, and he harasses me. He gnashes his teeth at me. My enemy pierces me with his eyes.
16:10  They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join themselves together against me.
16:11  God hands me over to the unjust; he throws me to the wicked.
16:12  I was at ease, but he shattered me; he seized me by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target;
16:13  his archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground.
16:14  He breaks through my defenses again and again; he charges at me like a warrior.
16:15  I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my strength in the dust.
16:16  My face has grown red with weeping, and darkness covers my eyes,
16:17  although my hands are free from violence and my prayer is pure.
16:18  Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help find no resting place.
16:19  Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is in the heights!
16:20  My friends scoff at me as I weep before God.
16:21  I wish that someone might argue for a man with God just as anyone would for a friend.
16:22  For only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return.