1: Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and
understood it. |
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2: What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto
you. |
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3:
Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason
with God. |
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4: But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
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5: O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be
your wisdom. |
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6: Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my
lips. |
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7: Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
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8: Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?
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9: Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man
mocketh another, do ye so mock him? |
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10: He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.
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11: Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall
upon you? |
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12: Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies
of clay. |
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13: Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come
on me what will. |
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14: Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in
mine hand? |
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15: Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will
maintain mine own ways before him. |
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16: He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not
come before him. |
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17: Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.
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18: Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be
justified. |
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19: Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my
tongue, I shall give up the ghost. |
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20: Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself
from thee. |
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21: Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make
me afraid. |
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22: Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and
answer thou me. |
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23: How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my
transgression and my sin. |
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24: Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine
enemy? |
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25: Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou
pursue the dry stubble? |
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26: For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to
possess the iniquities of my youth. |
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27: Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly
unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet. |
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28: And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is
moth eaten. |