Job 16  Christian Standard Bible

⁶ If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?
⁷ Surely he^[b] has now exhausted me.
You have devastated my entire family.
⁸ You have shriveled me up^[c]—it has become a witness;
my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.
⁹ His anger tears at me, and he harasses^(D) me.
He gnashes his teeth at me.
My enemy pierces me with his eyes.
¹⁰ They open their mouths against me
and strike my cheeks with contempt;^(E)
they join themselves together against me.
¹¹ God hands me over to the unjust;^[d]
he throws me to the wicked.
¹² I was at ease, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the scruff of the neck
and smashed me to pieces.
He set me up as his target;^(F)
13 his archers^[e] surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and pours my bile on the ground.
¹⁴ He breaks through my defenses again and again;^[f]
he charges at me like a warrior.^(G)

¹⁵ I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
I have buried my strength^[g] in the dust.^(H)
16 My face has grown red with weeping,
and darkness^(I) covers my eyes,
¹⁷ although my hands are free from violence^(J)
and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸ Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry for help find no resting place.^(K)
19 Even now my witness is in heaven,
and my advocate is in the heights!^(L)
20 My friends scoff at me
as I weep before God.
²¹ I wish that someone might argue for a man with God^(M)
just as anyone^[h] would for a friend.
²² For only a few years will pass
before I go the way of no return.