48 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
48 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 16
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1 Then Job spoke again:
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2 “I have heard all this before.
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What miserable comforters you are!
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3 Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air?
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What makes you keep on talking?
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4 I could say the same things if you were in my place.
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I could spout off criticism and shake my head at you.
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5 But if it were me, I would encourage you.
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I would try to take away your grief.
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6 Instead, I suffer if I defend myself,
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and I suffer no less if I refuse to speak.
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7 “O God, you have ground me down
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and devastated my family.
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8 As if to prove I have sinned, you’ve reduced me to skin and bones.
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My gaunt flesh testifies against me.
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9 God hates me and angrily tears me apart.
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He snaps his teeth at me
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and pierces me with his eyes.
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10 People jeer and laugh at me.
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They slap my cheek in contempt.
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A mob gathers against me.
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11 God has handed me over to sinners.
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He has tossed me into the hands of the wicked.
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12 “I was living quietly until he shattered me.
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He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces.
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Then he set me up as his target,
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13 and now his archers surround me.
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His arrows pierce me without mercy.
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The ground is wet with my blood.
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14 Again and again he smashes against me,
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charging at me like a warrior.
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15 I wear burlap to show my grief.
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My pride lies in the dust.
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16 My eyes are red with weeping;
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dark shadows circle my eyes.
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17 Yet I have done no wrong,
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and my prayer is pure.
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18 “O earth, do not conceal my blood.
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Let it cry out on my behalf.
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19 Even now my witness is in heaven.
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My advocate is there on high.
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20 My friends scorn me,
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but I pour out my tears to God.
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21 I need someone to mediate between God and me,
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as a person mediates between friends.
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22 For soon I must go down that road
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from which I will never return. |