Darby Bible Translation

New Living Translation

Job: Poor Comforters are You

And Job answered and said,

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Job’s Fifth Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

Then Job spoke again:

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I have heard many such things: grievous comforters are ye all.

2

“I have heard all this before.
What miserable comforters you are!

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Shall words of wind have an end? or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?

3

Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air?
What makes you keep on talking?

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I also could speak as ye: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could join together words against you, and shake my head at you;

4

I could say the same things if you were in my place.
I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.

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[But] I would encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips should assuage [your pain].

5

But if it were me, I would encourage you.
I would try to take away your grief.

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If I speak, my pain is not assuaged; and if I forbear, what am I eased?

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Instead, I suffer if I defend myself,
and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.

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But now he hath made me weary; ... thou hast made desolate all my family;

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“O God, you have ground me down
and devastated my family.

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Thou hast shrivelled me up! it is become a witness; and my leanness riseth up against me, it beareth witness to my face.

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As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones.
My gaunt flesh testifies against me.

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His anger teareth and pursueth me; he gnasheth with his teeth against me; [as] mine adversary he sharpeneth his eyes at me.

9

God hates me and angrily tears me apart.
He snaps his teeth at me
and pierces me with his eyes.

10

They gape upon me with their mouth; they smite my cheeks reproachfully; they range themselves together against me.

10

People jeer and laugh at me.
They slap my cheek in contempt.
A mob gathers against me.

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God hath delivered me over to the iniquitous man, and hurled me into the hands of the wicked.

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God has handed me over to sinners.
He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.

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I was at rest, but he hath shattered me; he hath taken me by the neck and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

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,

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His arrows encompass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

13

and now his archers surround me.
His arrows pierce me without mercy.
The ground is wet with my blood.a

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He breaketh me with breach upon breach; he runneth upon me like a mighty man.

14

Again and again he smashes against me,
charging at me like a warrior.

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I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and rolled my horn in the dust.

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I wear burlap to show my grief.
My pride lies in the dust.

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My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

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My eyes are red with weeping;
dark shadows circle my eyes.

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Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

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Yet I have done no wrong,
and my prayer is pure.

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O earth, cover not my blood, and let there be no place for my cry!

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“O earth, do not conceal my blood.
Let it cry out on my behalf.

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Even now, behold, my Witness is in the heavens, and he that voucheth for me is in the heights.

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Even now my witness is in heaven.
My advocate is there on high.

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My friends are my mockers; mine eye poureth out tears unto +God.

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My friends scorn me,
but I pour out my tears to God.

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Oh that there were arbitration for a man with +God, as a son of man for his friend!

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I need someone to mediate between God and me,
as a person mediates between friends.

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For years [few] in number shall pass, -- and I shall go the way [whence] I shall not return.

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For soon I must go down that road
from which I will never return.

Parallel

Darby Bible Translation

New Living Translation

Job 16

Job 16