Job
Chapter 16
Job answers Eliphaz's second speech. He tells his three friends that their words bring him no comfort, and says he could easily talk this way if their places were switched. He then describes God as an attacker who has worn him down, torn at him, and made him a target, while men gather to mock him. Job insists he has done no violence, asks the earth not to hide his blood, and says that even now a witness for him is in heaven.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
Then Job answered and said,
1Then Job answered:
2I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
2I have heard many things like this before. Every one of you comforts me in a way that only hurts.
3Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
3Will your empty speeches ever end? What keeps stirring you up to argue back?
4I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
4I could talk the way you do, if you were the one in my place. I could pile up words against you and shake my head at you.
5But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
5But instead I would use my words to make you stronger. What I said would ease your pain.
6Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
6When I speak, my pain does not ease. When I stay quiet, it does not leave either.
7But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
7But now God has worn me out. He has emptied my house of everyone who was mine.
8And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
8He has shriveled me up, and people treat that as proof against me. My thin, wasted body stands up and accuses me to my face.
9He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
9In his anger he tears at me and turns against me. He grinds his teeth at me. My enemy stares at me with hard, sharp eyes.
10They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
10People open their mouths wide to jeer at me. They slap my face to shame me. They crowd together against me.
11God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
11God has handed me over to men who do wrong. He has turned me over to the power of cruel people.
12I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
12I was living at ease, but he broke me apart. He grabbed me by the neck and shook me to pieces. He set me up as his target.
13His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
13His archers surround me. He cuts deep into my insides and shows no mercy. He spills my gall out on the ground.
"Reins" in the KJV means the kidneys, deep inside the body. "Gall" is the bitter fluid the body makes to help digest food. Job is picturing himself as a target shot through with arrows.
14He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
14He breaks through me again and again. He charges at me like a mighty soldier.
15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
15I have sewn rough mourning cloth over my skin. I have pushed my strength down into the dust.
Sackcloth was rough, scratchy cloth people wore to show deep grief. A "horn" was a common picture of a person's strength and honor, so putting his horn in the dust means his strength is brought low.
16My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
16My face is red and swollen from crying. Deep dark shadows ring my eyes.
17Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
17Yet my hands have done nothing cruel, and my prayer is honest.
18O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
18Earth, do not cover up my blood. Do not let my cry for help ever be silenced.
"Let my cry have no place" does not mean Job wants to be silent. He is asking the opposite: may his cry for help never come to rest until it is answered.
19Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
19Even now, my witness is in heaven. The one who will speak for me is up above.
20My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
20My friends only laugh at me. My eyes pour out tears to God.
21O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
21How I wish someone could argue a man's case with God, the way a man argues for his friend.
22When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
22In just a few years I will go down the road that no one comes back from.
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