New King James Version

New International Version

Job Reproaches His Pitiless Friends

Then Job answered and said:

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Job

Then Job replied:

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“I have heard many such things;
Miserable[a] comforters are you all!

2

“I have heard many things like these;
you are miserable comforters, all of you!

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Shall [b]words of wind have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?

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Will your long-winded speeches never end?
What ails you that you keep on arguing?

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I also could speak as you do,
If your soul were in my soul’s place.
I could heap up words against you,
And shake my head at you;

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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.

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But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.

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But my mouth would encourage you;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

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“Though I speak, my grief is not relieved;
And if I remain silent, how am I eased?

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“Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I refrain, it does not go away.

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But now He has worn me out;
You have made desolate all my company.

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Surely, God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.

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You have shriveled me up,
And it is a witness against me;
My leanness rises up against me
And bears witness to my face.

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You have shriveled me up — and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

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He tears me in His wrath, and hates me;
He gnashes at me with His teeth;
My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.

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God assails me and tears me in his anger
and gnashes his teeth at me;
my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

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They gape at me with their mouth,
They strike me reproachfully on the cheek,
They gather together against me.

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People open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.

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God has delivered me to the ungodly,
And turned me over to the hands of the wicked.

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God has turned me over to the ungodly
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

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I was at ease, but He has shattered me;
He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces;
He has set me up for His target,

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All was well with me, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;

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His archers surround me.
He pierces my [c]heart and does not pity;
He pours out my gall on the ground.

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his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.

14

He breaks me with wound upon wound;
He runs at me like a [d]warrior.

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Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.

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“I have sewn sackcloth over my skin,
And laid my [e]head in the dust.

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“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
and buried my brow in the dust.

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My face is [f]flushed from weeping,
And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

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My face is red with weeping,
dark shadows ring my eyes;

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Although no violence is in my hands,
And my prayer is pure.

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yet my hands have been free of violence
and my prayer is pure.

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“O earth, do not cover my blood,
And let my cry have no resting place!

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“Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!

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Surely even now my witness is in heaven,
And my evidence is on high.

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Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.

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My friends scorn me;
My eyes pour out tears to God.

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My intercessor is my frienda
as my eyes pour out tears to God;

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Oh, that one might plead for a man with God,
As a man pleads for his [g]neighbor!

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on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as one pleads for a friend.

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For when a few years are finished,
I shall go the way of no return.

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“Only a few years will pass
before I take the path of no return.

Parallel

New King James Version

New International Version

Job 16

Job 16