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16:1  Then Job replied:
16:2  ‘I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!
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, God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.
16:8  You have shrivelled me up – 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  People 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 the ungodly 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, dark shadows ring my eyes;
16:17  yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
16:18  ‘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 one pleads for a friend.
16:22  ‘Only a few years will pass before I take the path of no return.