| Chapter 16 |
1 | And Job answereth and saith: --
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2 | I have heard many such things, Miserable comforters [are] ye all.
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3 | Is there an end to words of wind? Or what doth embolden thee that thou answerest?
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4 | I also, like you, might speak, If your soul were in my soul's stead. I might join against you with words, And nod at you with my head.
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5 | I might harden you with my mouth, And the moving of my lips might be sparing.
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6 | If I speak, my pain is not restrained, And I cease -- what goeth from me?
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7 | Only, now, it hath wearied me; Thou hast desolated all my company,
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8 | And Thou dost loathe me, For a witness it hath been, And rise up against me doth my failure, In my face it testifieth.
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9 | His anger hath torn, and he hateth me, He hath gnashed at me with his teeth, My adversary sharpeneth his eyes for me.
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10 | They have gaped on me with their mouth, In reproach they have smitten my cheeks, Together against me they set themselves.
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11 | God shutteth me up unto the perverse, And to the hands of the wicked turneth me over.
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12 | At ease I have been, and he breaketh me, And he hath laid hold on my neck, And he breaketh me in pieces, And he raiseth me to him for a mark.
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13 | Go round against me do his archers. He splitteth my reins, and spareth not, He poureth out to the earth my gall.
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14 | He breaketh me -- breach upon breach, He runneth upon me as a mighty one.
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15 | Sackcloth I have sewed on my skin, And have rolled in the dust my horn.
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16 | My face is foul with weeping, And on mine eyelids [is] death-shade.
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17 | Not for violence in my hands, And my prayer [is] pure.
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18 | O earth, do not thou cover my blood! And let there not be a place for my cry.
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19 | Also, now, lo, in the heavens [is] my witness, And my testifier in the high places.
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20 | My interpreter [is] my friend, Unto God hath mine eye dropped:
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21 | And he reasoneth for a man with God, And a son of man for his friend.
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22 | When a few years do come, Then a path I return not do I go.
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