New Living Translation

New King James Version

Job’s Fifth Speech: A Response to Eliphaz

Then Job spoke again:

1

Job Reproaches His Pitiless Friends

Then Job answered and said:

2

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

2

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

3

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

3

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

4

I could say the same things if you were in my place.
I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.

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

5

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

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

6

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

7

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

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

8

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

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

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

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

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

10

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

11

God has handed me over to sinners.
He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.

11

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

12

“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,

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,

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

13

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

14

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

14

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

15

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

15

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

16

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

16

My face is [f]flushed from 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.

17

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

18

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

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

19

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

19

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

20

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

20

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

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

21

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

22

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

22

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

Parallel

New Living Translation

New King James Version

Job 16

Job 16