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Then Job replied:
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"I have heard many things like these;
you are miserable comforters, all of you!
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Will your long-winded speeches never end?
What ails you that you keep on arguing?
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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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But my mouth would encourage you;
comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
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"Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I refrain, it does not go away.
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Surely, God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.
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You have shriveled me up - and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
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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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People open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.
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God has turned me over to the ungodly
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
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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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his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.
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Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.
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"I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
and buried my brow in the dust.
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My face is red with weeping,
dark shadows ring my eyes;
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yet my hands have been free of violence
and my prayer is pure.
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"Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry never be laid to rest!
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Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
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My intercessor is my friend 1
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
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on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as one pleads for a friend.
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"Only a few years will pass
before I take the path of no return.