Ayub (Job) — 16

Ayub’s Fifth Speech: A Response to Aliphaz

1 Then Ayub spoke again:

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

3 Will you not 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 my 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH, you have ground me down and devastated my family.

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

9 For 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH 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 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH 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 Arath, do not conceal my blood. Let it cry out on my behalf.

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

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

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

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