Job 16

World English Bible 84 include this book

1 Then Job answered,

2 “I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!

3 Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

4 I 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,

5 but 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?

7 But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made all my company desolate.

8 You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.

9 He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.

10 They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.

11 God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

12 I 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.

13 His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my bile on the ground.

14 He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs at me like a giant.

15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids,

17 although 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.

19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.

20 My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,

21 that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor!

22 For when a few years have come, I will go the way of no return.

Go deeper in Job

2 places named in this book — no place is named in this chapter, so the whole book is shown.

Not known unknown No setting is given, and the book is deliberately placed outside Israel's history.

Traditions differ. Each position is shown rather than one asserted as settled.

Traditional: 2000 BC–1800 BC Unknown
The patriarchal setting and absence of Israelite institutions have long suggested a very early origin.
Critical: 600 BC–400 BC Unknown
Language and the developed treatment of suffering point to the exilic or post-exilic period.

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (2000 BC–400 BC).

2600 BC–1900 BC Indus Valley cities India
Harappa and Mohenjo-daro housed tens of thousands, with planned streets and drainage, and a script still undeciphered.
2055 BC–1650 BC Egyptian Middle Kingdom Egypt
Egypt reunified under Theban rule; large-scale irrigation works and the classical form of the Egyptian language date from this period.
1900 BC–1450 BC Minoan palace culture Greece
Crete supported a literate palace society trading across the Aegean long before mainland Greece.
1755 BC–1750 BC Code of Hammurabi Mesopotamia
Babylonian law code inscribed on a basalt stele, covering property, family and injury, and predating the Mosaic law codes.
1600 BC–1046 BC Shang dynasty oracle bones China
The earliest substantial Chinese writing, inscribed on bone and shell for divination.
1600 BC–1178 BC Hittite empire Anatolia
An Anatolian power rivalling Egypt, ended in the Bronze Age collapse.
1200 BC–1150 BC Late Bronze Age collapse Mediterranean
Within roughly two generations most eastern Mediterranean states fell; cities were destroyed, trade networks broke and literacy contracted sharply.
1200 BC–1000 BC Iron working spreads in the Levant Levant
Iron gradually displaced bronze for tools and weapons across the eastern Mediterranean.

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