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Then Job replied:
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“I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comfroters, 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 burst 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 prayers 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 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.
