Atlas Biblica

    Job · 22 verses

    Job 16

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    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    Job calls the one who tears him apart his witness and advocate, then asks for a man who might plead with God as with a neighbour.

    Miserable comfortersvv. 1–6

    Job has heard enough speeches to identify a new species of help: miserable comforters. He could answer in the same fashion, piling up words and shaking his head, but says that his own mouth would instead encourage the sufferer. Speaking does not lessen his pain; silence, plainly, has not discovered the trick either.

    The target and the witnessvv. 7–17

    Job describes God as the force that has exhausted and devastated him: binding him, tearing him, setting him up as a target, and surrounding him with archers. The complaint becomes remarkably anatomical; kidneys are pierced and gall spills upon the ground. Yet Job insists that his hands are free of violence and his prayer pure, while sackcloth, dust, tears, and darkened eyes make their own grim procession.

    A witness on highvv. 18–22

    Job will not have the earth cover his blood or his cry be laid to rest. His friends scoff while his eyes pour out tears to God, but above that scene stands the astonishing appeal: the one addressed as God is also named as witness and advocate. The desired arrangement is almost domestic in its simplicity—a man pleading with God as with a neighbour—though Job says only a few years remain before the way of no return.

    The text

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Job 16:1Then Job answered:

    2. Job 16:2“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.

    3. Job 16:3Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?

    4. Job 16:4I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

    5. Job 16:5But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

    6. Job 16:6Even if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I hold back, how will it go away?

    7. Job 16:7Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.

    8. Job 16:8You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

    9. Job 16:9His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

    10. Job 16:10They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.

    11. Job 16:11God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.

    12. Job 16:12I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;

    13. Job 16:13His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.

    14. Job 16:14He breaks me with wound upon wound; He rushes me like a mighty warrior.

    15. Job 16:15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin; I have buried my horn in the dust.

    16. Job 16:16My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;

    17. Job 16:17yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.

    18. Job 16:18O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.

    19. Job 16:19Even now my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.

    20. Job 16:20My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.

    21. Job 16:21Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!

    22. Job 16:22For when only a few years are past I will go the way of no return.’’

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 212 passages were voted onto 21 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 10Psalms 35:15But when I stumbled, they assembled in glee; they gathered together against me. Assailants I did not know slandered me without ceasing.
    • 10Psalms 22:13They open their jaws against me like lions that roar and maul.
    • 10Isaiah 50:6I offered My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard. I did not hide My face from scorn and spittle.
    • 4Psalms 109:25I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
    • 4Psalms 22:7All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:
    • 8Job 10:17You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
    • 9Psalms 35:16Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.
    • 9Job 13:24Why do You hide Your face and consider me as Your enemy?
    • 9Lamentations 2:16All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”
    • 10Lamentations 3:30Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.
    • 19Romans 1:9God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you
    • 20Hebrews 5:7During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.
    • 21Ecclesiastes 6:10Whatever exists was named long ago, and it is known what man is; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he.
    • 6Job 10:1“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
    • 10Acts 23:2At this, the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.
    • 10Micah 5:1Now, O daughter of troops, mobilize your troops; for a siege is laid against us! With a rod they will strike the cheek of the judge of Israel.

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