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- Then Job answered and said:
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- How long will ye vex my soul, and crush me with words?
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- These ten times have ye reproached me;
ye are not ashamed that ye deal harshly with me.
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- And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
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- If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach;
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- Know now that God hath subverted my cause, and hath compassed me with His net.
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- Behold, I cry out: "Violence!" but I am not heard;
I cry aloud, but there is no justice.
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- He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and hath set darkness in my paths.
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- He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
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- He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone;
and my hope hath He plucked up like a tree.
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- He hath also kindled His wrath against me, and He counteth me unto Him as one of His adversaries.
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- His troops come on together, and cast up their way against me, and encamp round about my tent.
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- He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.
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- My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
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- They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger;
I am become an alien in their sight.
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- I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer, though I entreat him with my mouth.
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- My breath is abhorred of my wife, and I am loathsome to the children of my tribe.
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- Even urchins despised me;
if I arise, they speak against me.
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- All my intimate friends abhor me;
and they whom I loved are turned against me.
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- My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
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- Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends;
for the hand of God hath touched me.
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- Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
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- Oh that my words were now written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
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- That with an iron pen and lead they were graven in the rock for ever!
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- But as for me, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He will witness at the last upon the dust;
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- And when after my skin this is destroyed, then without my flesh shall I see God;
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- Whom I, even I, shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another"s.
My reins are consumed within me.
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- If ye say: "How we will persecute him!" seeing that the root of the matter is found in me;
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- Be ye afraid of the sword;
for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.
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