Job 16:12-22

12 I, that rich man and famous sometime, am all-broken suddenly; he held my noll; he hath broken me, and hath set me as into a sign. (I, that rich and sometimes famous man, am suddenly all-broken; he held me by the neck; he hath altogether broken me, and hath set me up like a target.)

13 And he hath (en)compassed me with his spears, he hath wounded altogether my loins; he hath not spared me, and he hath shed out mine entrails into the earth. (And he hath surrounded me with his spears, he hath deeply wounded my loins; he hath not spared me, and he hath poured out my bowels upon the ground.)

14 He hath beaten me with wound upon wound; and he as a giant hath fallen in upon me (and he hath fallen in on me like a giant).

15 I sewed together a sackcloth upon my skin; and I covered my flesh with ashes.

16 My face swelled of weeping (My face swelled from weeping), and mine eyelids waxed dark.

17 I suffered these things without (any) wickedness of mine hand, or work, (and) when I had clean prayers to God.

18 Earth, cover thou not my blood, and my cry find not in thee a place of hiding. (O earth, do not thou cover up my blood, and let not my cry for justice find any place of rest.)

19 For, lo! my witness is in heaven; and the Knower of my conscience is in high places.

20 O! my friends, full of words; mine eye droppeth (out tears) to God.

21 And I would, that a man were deemed so with God, as the son of man is deemed with his fellow. (And I wish, that there was someone to plead with God for me, like the son of a man who pleadeth for his fellow, or for his friend.)

22 For lo! short years pass, and I go a path, by which I shall not turn again (by which I shall not return).

Job 16:12-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 16

This chapter and the following contain Job's reply to the preceding discourse of Eliphaz, in which he complains of the conversation of his friends, as unprofitable, uncomfortable, vain, empty, and without any foundation, Job 16:1-3; and intimates that were they in his case and circumstances, tie should behave in another manner towards them, not mock at them, but comfort them, Job 16:4,5; though such was his unhappy case, that, whether he spoke or was silent, it was much the same; there was no alloy to his grief, Job 16:6; wherefore he turns himself to God, and speaks to him, and of what he had done to him, both to his family, and to himself; which things, as they proved the reality of his afflictions, were used by his friends as witnesses against him, Job 16:7,8; and then enters upon a detail of his troubles, both at the hands of God and man, in order to move the divine compassion, and the pity of his friends, Job 16:9-14; which occasioned him great sorrow and distress, Job 16:15,16; yet asserts his own innocence, and appeals to God for the truth of it, Job 16:17-19; and applies to him, and wishes his cause was pleaded with him, Job 16:20,21; and concludes with the sense he had of the shortness of his life, Job 16:22; which sentiment is enlarged upon in the following chapter.