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Then Job answered , and said:
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How long do you afflict my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
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Behold, these ten times you confound me, and are not ashamed to oppress me.
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For if I have been ignorant, my ignorance shall be with me.
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But you have set yourselves up against me, and reprove me with my reproaches.
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At least now understand, that God hath not afflicted me with an equal judgment, and compassed me with his scourges.
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Behold I cry suffering violence, and no one will hear: I shall cry aloud, and there is none to judge.
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He hath hedged in my path round about, and I cannot pass, and in my way he hath set darkness.
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He hath stripped me of my glory, and hath taken the crown from my head.
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He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and he hath taken away my hope, as from a tree that is plucked up.
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His wrath is kindled against me, and he hath counted me as his enemy.
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His troops have come together, and have made themselves a way by me, and have besieged my tabernacle round about.
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He hath put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintance like strangers have departed from me.
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My kinsmen have forsaken me, and they that knew me, have forgotten me.
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They that dwelt in my house, and my maidservants have counted me a stranger, and I have been like an alien in their eyes.
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I called my servant, and he gave me no answer, I entreated him with my own mouth.
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My wife hath abhorred my breath, and I entreated the children of my womb.
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Even fools despise me; and when I gone from them, they spoke against me.
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They that were sometime my counsellors, have abhorred me: and he whom I love most is turned against me.
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The flesh being consumed. My bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth.
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Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me.
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Why do you persecute me as God, and glut yourselves with my flesh?
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Who will grant me that my words may be written? Who will grant me that they may be marked down in a book?
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With an iron pen and in a plate of lead, or else be graven with an instrument in flint stone.
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For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth.
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And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see my God.
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Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom.
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Why then do you say now: Let us persecute him, and let us find occasion of word against him?
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Flee then from the face of the sword, for the sword is the revenger of iniquities: and know ye that there is judgment.