Job 16

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WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE

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1

Then Job answered,

2

“I have heard many such things.
You are all miserable comforters!

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Shall vain words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?

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I also could speak as you do.
If your soul were in my soul’s place,
I could join words together against you,
and shake my head at you,

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but I would strengthen you with my mouth.
The solace of my lips would relieve you.

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“Though I speak, my grief is not subsided.
Though I forbear, what am I eased?

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But now, God, you have surely worn me out.
You have made all my company desolate.

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You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me.
My leanness rises up against me.
It testifies to my face.

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He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me.
He has gnashed on me with his teeth.
My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.

10

They have gaped on me with their mouth.
They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully.
They gather themselves together against me.

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God delivers me to the ungodly,
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

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I was at ease, and he broke me apart.
Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces.
He has also set me up for his target.

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His archers surround me.
He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare.
He pours out my bile on the ground.

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He breaks me with breach on breach.
He runs at me like a giant.

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I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
and have thrust my horn in the dust.

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My face is red with weeping.
Deep darkness is on my eyelids.

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Although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.

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“Earth, don’t cover my blood.
Let my cry have no place to rest.

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Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven.
He who vouches for me is on high.

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My friends scoff at me.
My eyes pour out tears to God,

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that he would maintain the right of a man with God,
of a son of man with his neighbor!

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For when a few years have come,
I will go the way of no return.

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Scripture text: World English Bible.

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WISDOM

Where this chapter fits

Job belongs to Israel's wisdom/poetic tradition, where literary form matters as much as historical setting.

Chapter numbers were added long after the biblical books were written.

Read this chapter together with what comes immediately before and after it.

ANCIENT TEXT, MODERN QUESTIONS

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Scientific claims should be compared with science.

Moral claims should be examined morally.

Theological claims require theological and philosophical argument.

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