Job
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Then Job replied:
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"Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you give me.
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Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
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"Is my complaint directed to man? Why should I not be impatient?
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Look at me and be astonished; clap your hand over your mouth.
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When I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body.
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Wht do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
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They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes.
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Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not upon them.
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Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
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They send forth their children as a flock; their little ones dance about.
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They sing to the music of tambourine and harp;
they make merry to the sound of the flute.
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They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.
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Yet they say to God, 'Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways.
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Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What would we gain by praying to him?'
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But their prosperity is not their own hands,
so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.
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"Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
How often does calamity come upon them,
the fate God allots in his anger?
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