Parallel Bible results for "job 16"

Job 16

New Living Translation NLT

1 Then Job spoke again:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11 God has handed me over to sinners. He has tossed me into 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,

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

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

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

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

17 Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure.

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

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

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

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

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

The Message Bible MSG

1 Then Job defended himself:

2 "I've had all I can take of your talk. What a bunch of miserable comforters!

3 Is there no end to your windbag speeches? What's your problem that you go on and on like this?

4 If you were in my shoes, I could talk just like you. I could put together a terrific harangue and really let you have it.

5 But I'd never do that. I'd console and comfort, make things better, not worse!

6 "When I speak up, I feel no better; if I say nothing, that doesn't help either.

7 I feel worn down. God, you have wasted me totally - me and my family!

8 You've shriveled me like a dried prune, showing the world that you're against me. My gaunt face stares back at me from the mirror, a mute witness to your treatment of me.

9 Your anger tears at me, your teeth rip me to shreds, your eyes burn holes in me - God, my enemy!

10 People take one look at me and gasp. Contemptuous, they slap me around and gang up against me.

11 And God just stands there and lets them do it, lets wicked people do what they want with me.

12 I was contentedly minding my business when God beat me up. He grabbed me by the neck and threw me around. He set me up as his target,

13 then rounded up archers to shoot at me. Merciless, they shot me full of arrows; bitter bile poured from my gut to the ground.

14 He burst in on me, onslaught after onslaught, charging me like a mad bull.

15 "I sewed myself a shroud and wore it like a shirt; I lay face down in the dirt.

16 Now my face is blotched red from weeping; look at the dark shadows under my eyes,

17 Even though I've never hurt a soul and my prayers are sincere! The One Who Represents Mortals Before God

18 "O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me! Don't muffle my cry!

19 There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name -

20 My Champion, my Friend, while I'm weeping my eyes out before God.

21 I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor.

22 "Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return.