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16:1  Job replied,
16:2  “I’ve heard many of these things before. All of you are terrible at comforting me!
16:3  Your speeches go on forever. Won’t they ever end? What’s wrong with you? Why do you keep on arguing?
16:4  If you and I changed places, I could say the same things you are saying. I could make fine speeches against you. I could shake my head at you.
16:5  But what I might say would give you hope. My words of comfort would help you.
16:6  “If I speak, it doesn’t help me. And if I keep quiet, my pain doesn’t go away.
16:7  God has worn me out completely. He has destroyed my whole family.
16:8  People can see the condition he has put me in. My thin body stands as a witness against me.
16:9  God is angry with me. He attacks me and tears me up. He grinds his teeth at me. He stares at me as if he were my enemy.
16:10  People make fun of me. They slap my face and laugh at me. All of them join together against me.
16:11  God has turned me over to sinful people. He has handed me over to them.
16:12  Everything was going well with me. But he broke me into pieces like a clay pot. He grabbed me by the neck and crushed me. He has taken aim at me.
16:13  He shoots his arrows at me from all sides. Without pity, he stabs me in the kidneys. He spills my insides on the ground.
16:14  He smashes through me as if I were a wall. He rushes at me like a fighting man.
16:15  “I’ve sewed rough clothing over my skin. All I can do is sit here in the dust.
16:16  My face is red from crying. I have dark circles under my eyes.
16:17  But I haven’t harmed anyone. My prayers to God are pure.
16:18  “Earth, please don’t cover up my blood! May God always hear my cry for help!
16:19  Even now my witness is in heaven. The one who speaks up for me is there.
16:20  My go-between is my friend as I pour out my tears to God.
16:21  He makes his appeal to God to help me as a person pleads for a friend.
16:22  “Only a few years will pass by. Then I’ll take the path of no return.