--- title: "Job Replies to Eliphaz" description: "Then Job answered: “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all. Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying? I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you. But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief. Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away? Surely He has now exhausted me;" image: "" book: "Job" bookId: "JOB" testament: "old" startChapter: 16 startVerse: 1 endChapter: 17 endVerse: 16 coversChapters: [16,17] aiTitle: "Job Replies to Eliphaz" aiDescription: "Then Job answered: “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all. Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying? I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you. But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief. Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away? Surely He has now exhausted me;" hasAiStory: true location: "" persons: ["God","Job"] hashtags: ["judgment","righteousness","suffering"] genre: "wisdom" readingTime: 3 type: "adaptive" slug: "JOB/job-replies-to-eliphaz" canonicalId: "JOB.16.1-17.16" chronologicalOrder: 27 relatedSlugs: ["JOB/my-complaint-is-just","PSA/psalm-22-the-psalm-of-the-cross","PSA/psalm-35-contend-with-my-opponents-o-lord","JOB/jobs-plea-to-god","LAM/the-prophets-affliction","JOB/life-seems-futile","LAM/gods-anger-over-jerusalem"] prevSlug: "JOB/job-does-not-fear-god" nextSlug: "JOB/god-punishes-the-wicked" --- ### Job Decries His Comforters Then [Job](/persons/job) answered: “I have heard many things like these;miserable comforters are you all. Is there no end to your long-winded speeches?What provokes you to continue testifying? I could also speak like youif you were in my place;I could heap up words against youand shake my head at you. But I would encourage you with my mouth,and the consolation of my lips would bring relief. Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved,and if I hold back, how will it go away? Surely He has now exhausted me;You have devastated all my family. You have bound me, and it has become a witness;my frailty rises up and testifies against me. His anger has torn me and opposed me;He gnashes His teeth at me.My adversary pierces me with His eyes. They open their mouths against meand strike my cheeks with contempt;they join together against me. [God](/persons/god) has delivered me to unjust men;He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked. I was at ease, but He shattered me;He seized me by the neck and crushed me.He has set me up as His target; His archers surround me.He pierces my kidneys without mercyand spills my gall on the ground. He breaks me with wound upon wound;He rushes me like a mighty warrior. I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;I have buried my horn in the dust. My face is red with weeping,and deep shadows ring my eyes; yet my hands are free of violenceand my prayer is pure. O earth, do not cover my blood;may my cry for help never be laid to rest. Even now my witness is in heaven,and my advocate is on high. My friends are my scoffersas my eyes pour out tears to God. Oh, that a man might plead with Godas he pleads with his neighbor! For when only a few years are pastI will go the way of no return. ### Job Prepares for Death “My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished;the grave awaits me. Surely mockers surround me,and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion. Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand.Who else will be my guarantor? You have closed their minds to understanding;therefore You will not exalt them. If a man denounces his friends for a price,the eyes of his children will fail. He has made me a byword among the people,a man in whose face they spit. My eyes have grown dim with grief,and my whole body is but a shadow. The upright are appalled at this,and the innocent are stirred against the godless. Yet a righteous one holds to his way,and the one with clean hands grows stronger. But come back and try again, all of you.For I will not find a wise man among you. My days have passed; my plans are broken off—even the desires of my heart. They have turned night into day,making light seem near in the face of darkness. If I look for Sheol as my home,if I spread out my bed in darkness, and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope?Who can see any hope for me? Will it go down to the gates of Sheol?Will we go down together into the dust?”

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