Then Job answered and said,
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How long will ye vex my soul, and destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.
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Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.
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Yea verily, I have erred in truth, (but the error abides with myself)
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in having spoken words which it was not right [to speak]; and my words err, and are unseasonable.
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But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.
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Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled [me], and has raised his bulwark against me.
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Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: [or] I will cry out, but [there is] nowhere judgment.
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I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.
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And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head.
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He has torn me round about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree.
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And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.
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His troops also came upon me with one accord, liers in wait compassed my ways.
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My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognised strangers [rather] than me: and my friends have become pitiless.
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My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me.
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[As for] my household, and my maid-servants, I was a stranger before them.
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I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated [him].
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And I besought my wife, and earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines.
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But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.
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They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me.
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My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in [my] teeth.
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Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.
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Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord [does], and are not satisfied with my flesh?
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For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book for ever,
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with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks!
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For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me,
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[and] to raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these [sufferings]: for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord;
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which I am conscious of in myself, which mine eye has seen, and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in [my] bosom.
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But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him, and [so] find the root of the matter in him?
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Do ye also beware of deceit: for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know where their substance is.
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