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- And Job answered and said,
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- Hear attentively my speech, and let this replace your consolations.
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- Suffer me and I will speak;
and after I have spoken, mock on!
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- As for me, is my complaint to a man?
or wherefore should not my spirit be impatient?
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- Mark me, and be astonished, and lay the hand upon the mouth.
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- Even when I think [thereon], I am affrighted, and trembling taketh hold of my flesh.
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- Wherefore do the wicked live, grow old, yea, become mighty in power?
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- Their seed is established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.
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- Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of +God upon them.
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- Their bull gendereth, and faileth not;
their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
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- They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
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- They shout to the tambour and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
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- They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment go down to Sheol.
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- And they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways!
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- What is the Almighty that we should serve him?
and what are we profited if we pray unto him?
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- Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand.
The counsel of the wicked be far from me!
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- How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and cometh their calamity upon them?
Doth he distribute sorrows [to them] in his anger?
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- Do they become as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away?
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- +God layeth up [the punishment of] his iniquity for his children;
he rewardeth him, and he shall know [it]:
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- His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the fury of the Almighty.
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- For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
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- Can any teach God knowledge?
And he it is that judgeth those that are high.
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- One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet;
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- His sides are full of fat, and the marrow of his bones is moistened;
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- And another dieth in bitterness of soul, and hath not tasted good:
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- Together they lie down in the dust, and the worms cover them.
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- Lo, I know your thoughts, and the devices ye wrongfully imagine against me.
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- For ye say, Where is the house of the noble?
and where the tent of the dwellings of the wicked?
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- Have ye not asked the wayfarers?
and do ye not regard their tokens:
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- That the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity?
They are led forth to the day of wrath.
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- Who shall declare his way to his face?
and who shall repay him what he hath done?
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- Yet is he carried to the graves, and watch is kept over the tomb.
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- The clods of the valley are sweet unto him;
and every man followeth suit after him, as there were innumerable before him.
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- How then comfort ye me in vain?
Your answers remain perfidious.
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