Job 16

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¹Then Job answered and said: ²“I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all! ✦ ³Shall words of wind 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 heap up words against you, And shake my head at you; ✦ ⁵But I would strengthen you with my mouth, And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief. ✦ ⁶“Though I speak, my grief is not relieved; And if I remain silent, how am I eased? ✦ ⁷But now He has worn me out; You have made desolate all my company. ✦ ⁸You have shriveled me up, And it is a witness against me; My leanness rises up against me And bears witness to my face. ✦ ⁹He tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me. ✦ ¹⁰They gape at me with their mouth, They strike me reproachfully on the cheek, They gather together against me. ✦ ¹¹God has delivered me to the ungodly, And turned me over to the hands of the wicked. ✦ ¹²I was at ease, but He has shattered me; He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces; He has set me up for His target, ✦ ¹³His archers surround me. He pierces my heart and does not pity; He pours out my gall on the ground. ✦ ¹⁴He breaks me with wound upon wound; He runs at me like a warrior. ✦ ¹⁵“I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, And laid my head in the dust. ✦ ¹⁶My face is flushed from weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death; ✦ ¹⁷Although no violence is in my hands, And my prayer is pure. ✦ ¹⁸“O earth, do not cover my blood, And let my cry have no resting place! ✦ ¹⁹Surely even now my witness is in heaven, And my evidence is on high. ✦ ²⁰My friends scorn me; My eyes pour out tears to God. ✦ ²¹Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, As a man pleads for his neighbor! ✦ ²²For when a few years are finished, 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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