Job 16

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¹Then Job answered: ²“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all. ✦ ³Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying? ✦ ⁴I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you. ✦ ⁵But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief. ✦ ⁶Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away? ✦ ⁷Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family. ✦ ⁸You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me. ✦ ⁹His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes. ✦ ¹⁰They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me. ✦ ¹¹God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked. ✦ ¹²I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target; ✦ ¹³His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground. ✦ ¹⁴He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior. ✦ ¹⁵I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust. ✦ ¹⁶My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes; ✦ ¹⁷yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure. ✦ ¹⁸O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest. ✦ ¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high. ✦ ²⁰My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God. ✦ ²¹Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor! ✦ ²²For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

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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