1: Then Job answered and said, |
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2: I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye
all. |
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3:
Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that
thou answerest? |
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4: I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's
stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
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5: But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my
lips should asswage your grief. |
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6: Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I
forbear, what am I eased? |
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7: But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my
company. |
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8: And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness
against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
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9: He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me
with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. |
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10: They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten
me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together
against me. |
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11: God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into
the hands of the wicked. |
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12: I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also
taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his
mark. |
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13: His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins
asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
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14: He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me
like a giant. |
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15: I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in
the dust. |
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16: My face is foul with weeping, and my eyelids is the shadow of
death; |
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17: Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
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18: O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no
place. |
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19: Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is
on high. |
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20: My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
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21: O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth
for his neighbour! |
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22: When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I
shall not return. |