New King James Version

New Living Translation

Job Reproaches His Pitiless Friends

Then Job answered and said:

1

Job’s Fifth Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

Then Job spoke again:

2

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

2

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

3

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

3

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

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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;

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

5

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

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

6

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

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

7

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

8

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

8

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

9

He tears me in His wrath, and hates me;
He gnashes at me with His teeth;
My adversary sharpens His gaze on 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 at me with their mouth,
They strike me reproachfully on the cheek,
They gather 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 has delivered me to the ungodly,
And turned me over to the hands of the wicked.

11

God has handed me over to sinners.
He has tossed me into the hands 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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“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 archers surround me.
He pierces my [c]heart and does not pity;
He pours out my gall on the ground.

13

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

14

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

14

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

15

“I have sewn sackcloth over my skin,
And laid my [e]head 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 [f]flushed from 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 no violence is 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, do not cover my blood,
And let my cry have no resting place!

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

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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 there on high.

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

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My friends scorn me,
but I pour out my 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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I need someone to mediate between God and me,
as a person mediates between friends.

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

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

Parallel

New King James Version

New Living Translation

Job 16

Job 16