job 16 and 17

Read Job 16 and 17 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions

For the series of speeches from Job 3:2-28:10, the Hebrew paragraph divisions for each man’s speech are like the divisions in the Psalms that we studied in 2014. There is an understood {s} division at the end of each numbered line, with an {n} marking where a new line begins within a numbered line. There are four {n} division in the speech from Job 16:1-17:16:

16:4a I also could speak as you do, {n}
16:4b If your soul was in my soul’s place, I could heap up words against you, {n}
16:12a I was at ease, but He has shattered me; He also has taken me by my neck, and dashed me to pieces; {n}
16:13a His archers surround me. He pierces my heart and does not pity; {n}

Job 16:1-17:16 chiastic structure, Job’s reply to Eliphaz

1a) Job 16:1-6, You are miserable comforters who have not relieved my grief;

1a) Job 16:1-2a, Then Job answered and said: I have heard many such things;
1b) Job 16:2b, Miserable comforters are you all!
1c) Job 16:3, Shall words of wind have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
1d) Job 16:4a {n} I also could speak as you do;
central axis) Job 16:4b, If your soul were in my soul’s place;
2d) Job 16:4c {n} I could heap up words against you;
2c) Job 16:4d, And shake my head at you;
2b) Job 16:5, But I would strengthen you with my mouth + the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief;
2a) Job 16:6, Though I speak, my grief is not relieved; if I remain silent, how am I eased?

1b.1) Job 16:7, But now He has worn me out; You have made desolate all my company;

1b.2) Job 16:8, You have shriveled me up + it is a witness against me/ My leanness rises up against me + bears witness to my face;

1c) Job 16:9-11, He tears me in His wrath + gnashes at me/ God has delivered me to the ungodly;

central axis) Job 16:12a, I was at ease;

2c) Job 16:12b-14, He has shattered + broken me/ pierces my heart + does not pity;

1a) Job 16:12b, But He has shattered me;
1b) Job 16:12c {n} He also has taken me by my neck + dashed me to pieces [on the ground implied];
central axis) Job 16:12d-13a {n} He has set me up for His target + His archers surround me/ He pierces my heart + does not pity;
2b) Job 16:13b, He pours out my gall on the ground;
2a) Job 16:14, He breaks me with wound upon wound + He runs at me like a warrior;

2b.1) Job 16:15, I have sewn sackcloth over my skin + laid my head in the dust;

2b.2) Job 16:16-22, My Witness is in heaven + He that testifies of me is on high;

1a.1) Job 16:16a, My face is flushed from weeping;
1a.2) Job 16:16b-17a, On my eyelids is the shadow of death although no violence is in my hands;
1b) Job 16:17b, And my prayer is pure;
central axis) Job 16:18-19, O earth, do not cover my blood + let my cry have no resting place/ Surely my Witness is in heaven + He that testifies of me is on high;
2b) Job 16:20a, My inward thoughts are my intercessors;
2a.1) Job 16:20b, My eyes pour out tears to God;
2a.2) Job 16:21-22 That He would set aright a man contending with God for the time of my death approaches;

2a) Job 17:1-16, My spirit is broken/ you have proven to be mockers, unwise, hypocrites;

1a) Job 17:1, My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished, the grave is ready for me;
1b) Job 17:2, Are not mockers with me? Does not my eye dwell on their provocation?
1c) Job 17:3-4, Who else will shake hands with me in pledge? You have hidden their heart from understanding;
1d) Job 17:5, He who denounces his friends for the sake of flattery, the eyes of his children will fail;
central axis) Job 17:6, But He has made me a byword of the people + I have become one in whose face men spit;
2d) Job 17:7-8, My eye has grown dim because of sorrow/ the innocent stirs himself up against the hypocrite;
2c) Job 17:9, The righteous will hold to his way + he who has clean hands will get stronger;
2b) Job 17:10, But please, come back again, all of you, for I shall not find one wise man among you;
2a) Job 17:11-16, My days are past, my purpose is broken off, I wait for the grave as my house.