50 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
50 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 16
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1 Then Job answered:
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2 I have heard many things like these.
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You are all miserable comforters.
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3 Is there no end to your empty words?
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What provokes you that you continue testifying?
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4 If you were in my place I could also talk like you.
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I could string words together against you
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and shake my head at you.
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5 Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,
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and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.
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6 If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
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and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?
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7 Surely he has now exhausted me.
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You have devastated my entire family.
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8 You have shriveled me up—it has become a witness;
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my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.
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9 His anger tears at me, and he harasses me.
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He gnashes his teeth at me.
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My enemy pierces me with his eyes.
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10 They open their mouths against me
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and strike my cheeks with contempt;
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they join themselves together against me.
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11 God hands me over to the unjust;
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he throws me to the wicked.
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12 I was at ease, but he shattered me;
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he seized me by the scruff of the neck
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and smashed me to pieces.
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He set me up as his target;
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13 his archers surround me.
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He pierces my kidneys without mercy
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and pours my bile on the ground.
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14 He breaks through my defenses again and again;
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he charges at me like a warrior.
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15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
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I have buried my strength in the dust.
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16 My face has grown red with weeping,
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and darkness covers my eyes,
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17 although my hands are free from violence
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and my prayer is pure.
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18 Earth, do not cover my blood;
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may my cry for help find no resting place.
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19 Even now my witness is in heaven,
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and my advocate is in the heights!
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20 My friends scoff at me
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as I weep before God.
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21 I wish that someone might argue for a man with God
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just as anyone would for a friend.
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22 For only a few years will pass
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before I go the way of no return. |