Job 16

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¹Then Job answered, ²“I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters! ✦ ³Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? ✦ ⁴I 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, ✦ ⁵but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you. ✦ ⁶“Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased? ✦ ⁷But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made desolate all my company. ✦ ⁸You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face. ✦ ⁹He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me. ✦ ¹⁰They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me. ✦ ¹¹God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. ✦ ¹²I 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. ✦ ¹³His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground. ✦ ¹⁴He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a giant. ✦ ¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust. ✦ ¹⁶My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids. ✦ ¹⁷Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. ✦ ¹⁸“Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest. ✦ ¹⁹Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high. ✦ ²⁰My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God, ✦ ²¹that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor! ✦ ²²For when a few years have come, I shall go the way of no return. ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Job 6 ·8 Lam 3 ·6 Job 29 ·5 Job 13 ·5 Job 7 ·5 Job 15 ·4 Ps 7 ·4 Job 19 ·4

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Job 16YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Job 16David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Job 16Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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