Job 16:21 - Prayer Tents

If You Were in My Shoes

16Then Job defended himself:H347H6030H559 2"I've had all I can take of your talk. What a bunch of miserable comforters!H8085H7227H5999H5162 3Is there no end to your windbag speeches? What's your problem that you go on and on like this?H7307H1697H7093H4834H6030 4If you were in my shoes, I could talk just like you. I could put together a terrific harangue and really let you have it.H1696H3863H5315H3426H5315H2266H4405H5128H7218H1119 5But I'd never do that. I'd console and comfort, make things better, not worse!H553H1119H6310H5205H8193H2820 6"When I speak up, I feel no better; if I say nothing, that doesn't help either.H1696H3511H2820H2308H1980 7I feel worn down. God, you have wasted me totally—me and my family!H3811H8074H5712 8You've shriveled me like a dried prune, showing the world that you're against me. My gaunt face stares back at me from the mirror, a mute witness to your treatment of me.H7059H5707H3585H6965H6030H6440 9Your anger tears at me, your teeth rip me to shreds, your eyes burn holes in me—God, my enemy!H2963H639H7852H2786H8127H6862H3913H5869 10People take one look at me and gasp. Contemptuous, they slap me around and gang up against me.H6473H6310H5221H3895H2781H4390H3162 11And God just stands there and lets them do it, lets wicked people do what they want with me.H410H5462H5760H3399H3027H7563 12I was contentedly minding my business when God beat me up. He grabbed me by the neck and threw me around. He set me up as his target,H7961H6565H270H6203H6327H6965H4307 13then rounded up archers to shoot at me. Merciless, they shot me full of arrows; bitter bile poured from my gut to the ground.H7228H5437H6398H3629H6398H2550H8210H4845H776 14He burst in on me, onslaught after onslaught, charging me like a mad bull.H6555H6556H6440H6556H7323H1368 15"I sewed myself a shroud and wore it like a shirt; I lay face down in the dirt.H8609H8242H1539H5953H7161H6083 16Now my face is blotched red from weeping; look at the dark shadows under my eyes,H6440H2560H1065H6079H6757 17Even though I've never hurt a soul and my prayers are sincere!H2555H3709H8605H2134

The One Who Represents Mortals Before God

18"O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me! Don't muffle my cry!H776H3680H1818H2201H4725 19There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name—H5707H8064H7717H4791 20My Champion, my Friend, while I'm weeping my eyes out before God.H7453H3887H5869H1811H433 21I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor.H3198H1397H433H120H1121H7453 22"Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return.H4557H8141H857H1980H734H7725