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Then Job replied:
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"Even today my complaint is bitter;
his hand 1 is heavy in spite of 2 my groaning.
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If only I knew where to find him;
if only I could go to his dwelling!
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I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
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I would find out what he would answer me,
and consider what he would say to me.
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Would he vigorously oppose me?
No, he would not press charges against me.
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There the upright can establish their innocence before him,
and there I would be delivered forever from my judge.
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"But if I go to the east, he is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find him.
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When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
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But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
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My feet have closely followed his steps;
I have kept to his way without turning aside.
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I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
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"But he stands alone, and who can oppose him?
He does whatever he pleases.
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He carries out his decree against me,
and many such plans he still has in store.
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That is why I am terrified before him;
when I think of all this, I fear him.
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God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.
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Yet I am not silenced by the darkness,
by the thick darkness that covers my face.
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"Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?
Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?
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There are those who move boundary stones;
they pasture flocks they have stolen.
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They drive away the orphan's donkey
and take the widow's ox in pledge.
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They thrust the needy from the path
and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
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Like wild donkeys in the desert,
the poor go about their labor of foraging food;
the wasteland provides food for their children.
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They gather fodder in the fields
and glean in the vineyards of the wicked.
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Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;
they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.
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They are drenched by mountain rains
and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.
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The fatherless child is snatched from the breast;
the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
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Lacking clothes, they go about naked;
they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
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They crush olives among the terraces 3 ;
they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
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The groans of the dying rise from the city,
and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.
But God charges no one with wrongdoing.
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"There are those who rebel against the light,
who do not know its ways
or stay in its paths.
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When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up,
kills the poor and needy,
and in the night steals forth like a thief.
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The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk;
he thinks, 'No eye will see me,'
and he keeps his face concealed.
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In the dark, thieves break into houses,
but by day they shut themselves in;
they want nothing to do with the light.
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For all of them, midnight is their morning;
they make friends with the terrors of darkness.
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"Yet they are foam on the surface of the water;
their portion of the land is cursed,
so that no one goes to the vineyards.
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As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow,
so the grave snatches away those who have sinned.
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The womb forgets them,
the worm feasts on them;
the wicked are no longer remembered
but are broken like a tree.
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They prey on the barren and childless woman,
and to the widow they show no kindness.
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But God drags away the mighty by his power;
though they become established, they have no assurance of life.
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He may let them rest in a feeling of security,
but his eyes are on their ways.
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For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are cut off like heads of grain.
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"If this is not so, who can prove me false
and reduce my words to nothing?"