# Chapter 16
1. Then Job answered and said:

2. "I have heard many such things;
Miserable comforters _are_ you all!

3. Shall words of wind have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?

4. 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;

5. _But_ I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the comfort of my lips would relieve _your grief._

6. "Though I speak, my grief is not relieved;
And _if_ I remain silent, how am I eased?

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

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.

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

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

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

12. 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,

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

14. He breaks me with wound upon wound;
He runs at me like a warrior.

15. "I have sewn sackcloth over my skin,
And laid my head in the dust.

16. My face is flushed from weeping,
And on my eyelids _is_ the shadow of death;

17. Although no violence _is_ in my hands,
And my prayer _is_ pure.

18. "O earth, do not cover my blood,
And let my cry have no _resting_ place!

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

20. My friends scorn me;
My eyes pour out _tears_ to God.

21. Oh, that one might plead for a man with God,
As a man _pleads_ for his neighbor!

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