# Job 16 (New King James Version)
Job Reproaches His Pitiless Friends

##### 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.