1 Then Job answered and said:
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"I have heard many such things;
a Miserable 1 comforters are you all!
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Shall 2 words of wind have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
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I also could speak as you do,
If your soul were in my soul's place.
I could heap up words against you,
And b shake my head at you;
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But I would strengthen you with my mouth,
And the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief.
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"Though I speak, my grief is not relieved;
And if I remain silent, how am I eased?
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But now He has c worn me out;
You d have made desolate all my company.
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You have shriveled me up,
And it is a e witness against me;
My leanness rises up against me
And bears witness to my face.
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f He tears me in His wrath, and hates me;
He gnashes at me with His teeth;
g My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.
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They h gape at me with their mouth,
They i strike me reproachfully on the cheek,
They gather together against me.
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God j has delivered me to the ungodly,
And turned me over to the hands of the wicked.
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I was at ease, but He has k shattered me;
He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces;
He has l set me up for His target,
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His archers surround me.
He pierces my 3 heart and does not pity;
He pours out my gall on the ground.
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He breaks me with wound upon wound;
He runs at me like a 4 warrior.
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"I have sewn sackcloth over my skin,
And m laid my 5 head in the dust.
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My face is 6 flushed from weeping,
And on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
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Although no violence is in my hands,
And my prayer is pure.
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"O earth, do not cover my blood,
And n let my cry have no resting place!
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Surely even now o my witness is in heaven,
And my evidence is on high.
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My friends scorn me;
My eyes pour out tears to God.
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p Oh, that one might plead for a man with God,
As a man pleads for his 7 neighbor!
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For when a few years are finished,
I shall q go the way of no return.