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16:1  Job answered, saying:
16:2  “I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!
16:3  Is there no end to your futile words? What compels you to answer?
16:4  I too could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could compose words against you and shake my head at you.
16:5  But I would strengthen you with my mouth and comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
16:6  “Yet, if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I refrain, does it not go away from me?
16:7  Surely now He has exhausted me; You have devastated my entire household.
16:8  You have seized me— it has become a witness; my leanness rises against me and testifies to my face.
16:9  His anger has torn and tormented me; He gnashes at me with his teeth; my enemy looks at me with daggers in his eyes.
16:10  People open their mouths against me; they strike my cheek in contempt; they unite together against me.
16:11  God has handed me over to the ungodly, and tossed me into the hands of the wicked.
16:12  I was at ease, but He shattered me; He grabbed me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me His target;
16:13  His archers surround me. Without mercy He pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
16:14  He breaks through against me, breach after breach. He runs after me like a warrior.
16:15  “I have sewn sackcloth over my skin and sunk my horn in the dust;
16:16  my face is red from weeping, and on my eyelids are deep darkness;
16:17  yet no violence is in my hands and my prayer is pure.
16:18  “Earth, do not cover my blood, and let my cry find no resting place!
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  he contends with God on behalf of man as one pleads for a friend.
16:22  “For the number of years will come to pass, and then I will go the way of no return.