¹Job replied,

²“I've heard all this before. You are comforters who just cause trouble![#16:2. Job uses the same word “trouble” to describe his counselors as Eliphaz has just done in concluding his speech in 15:35. It's as if Job is saying to his friends, “You are these evil people who cause trouble!”]

³Will your windy speeches never cease? What's bothering you that you have to answer me?[#16:3. Job is referring back to the beginning of Eliphaz's speech where he accuses Job of the same thing.]

⁴I could talk like you do if you were in my place, stringing words together to criticize you, ridiculing you with a toss of my head.

⁵I could build you up by my mouth speaking words; the movement of my lips would ease your pain.[#16:5. Whether Job is being sincere or sarcastic is debated.]

⁶For me, if I speak it doesn't ease my pain, and if I don't speak the pain is still there.

⁷God, you have worn me out. You have destroyed my whole family.[#16:7. “God” or “he” or “it”—the Hebrew is unclear.]

⁸You have made me shrivel up, which is a witness against me; my thin body testifies against me.[#16:8. Some understand this as Job saying his “shriveling up” and “thinness” are proof by God that he is a sinner.]

⁹He has torn me apart in his anger; in his hostility he has gnashed his teeth at me; my enemy pierces me with his fierce look.

¹⁰People stare at me with their mouths wide open, they slap me on my cheeks to mock me, they crowd around me to attack me.

¹¹God has handed me over to evil people; he has thrown me into their hands.

¹²I was living in peace and he smashed me to pieces. He grabbed me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target.

¹³His archers surround me. His arrows pierce my kidneys without mercy. He pours out my gall on the ground.

¹⁴Like a wall he breaks me down, breach upon breach, rushing at me like a warrior.

¹⁵I have sown sackcloth to cover my skin; my strength lies broken in the dust.[#16:15. Putting on sackcloth was a sign of mourning.; #16:15. Literally, “I have thrust my horn in the dust.”]

¹⁶My face is red from crying and dark shadows surround my eyes,

¹⁷although I have done nothing wrong and my prayer is pure.[#16:17. Literally, “there is no violence in my hands.”]

¹⁸Earth, do not cover up my blood. May my cry find no place to hide.

¹⁹Look, right now my witness is in heaven; the one who speaks for me is on high.

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

²¹I want my witness to speak for me with God as someone does for their friend.

²²For in a few short years I shall go down that road from which I shall not return.”