New Living Translation

Darby Bible Translation

Job’s Fifth Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

Then Job spoke again:

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Job: Poor Comforters are You

And Job answered and said,

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

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

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

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

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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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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;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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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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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.

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parallel

New Living Translation

Darby Bible Translation

Job 16

Job 16