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1.
Then Job replied:
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2.
"I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all!
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3.
Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?
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4.
I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.
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5.
But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
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6.
"Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.
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7.
Surely, O God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.
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8.
You have bound me--and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
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9.
God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
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10.
Men open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.
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11.
God has turned me over to evil men and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
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12.
All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;
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13.
his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
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14.
Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.
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15.
"I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.
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16.
My face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes;
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17.
yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
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18.
"O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!
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19.
Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
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20.
My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;
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21.
on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.
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22.
"Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return.
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