Job
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Then Job replied:
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"How long will you torment me and crush me with words?
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Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me.
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If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone.
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If indeed you would exalt yourselves above memand use my humiliation against me,
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then know that God has wronged memand drawn his net around me.
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"Though I cry, 'I've been wronged!' I get no response;
though I call for help, there is no justice.
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He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
it has shrouded my paths in darkness.
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He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
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He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree.
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His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.
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His troops advance in force; they buils a ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
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"He has alienated my brothers from me;
my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
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My kinsmen have gone away; my friends have forgotten me.
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My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger;
they look upon me as an alien.
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I summon my servant, but he does not answer,
though I beg him with my own mouth.
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My breath isoffensive to my wife; I am loathesome to my own brothers.
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Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me.
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All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.
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I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.
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"Have pity on me, my friends, have pity for the hand of God has struck me.
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Why do you pursue me asGod does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
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"Oh, that my words are recorded, that they were written on a scroll,
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that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!
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I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
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And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
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I myself will see him with my own eyes -
I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
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"If you say, 'How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him,
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you should fear the sword yourselves;
for wrath will bring punishment by the sword,
and then you will know that there is judgment."
