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[1]I made a covenant with mine eyes, and I will not think upon a virgin. |
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[2]Now what portion has God given from above? and is there an inheritance given of the Mighty One from the highest? |
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[3]Alas! destruction to the unrighteous, and rejection to them that do iniquity. |
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[4]Will he not see my way, and number all my steps? |
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[5]But if I had gone with scorners, and if too my foot has hasted to deceit: |
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[6](for I am weighed in a just balance, and the Lord knows my innocence:) |
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[7]if my foot has turned aside out of the way, or if mine heart has followed mine eye, and if too I have touched gifts with my hands; |
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[8]then let me sow, and let others eat; and let me be uprooted on the earth. |
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[9]If my heart has gone forth after another man's wife, and if I laid wait at her doors; |
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[10]then let my wife also please another, and let my children be brought low. |
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[11]For the rage of anger is not to be controlled, in the case of defiling another man's wife. |
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[12]For it is a fire burning on every side, and whomsoever it attacks, it utterly destroys. |
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[13]And if too I despised the judgment of my servant or my handmaid, when they pleaded with me; |
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[14]what then shall I do if the Lord should try me? and if also he should at all visit me, can I make an answer? |
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[15]Were not they too formed as I also was formed in the womb? yea, we were formed in the same womb. |
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[16]But the helpless missed not whatever need they had, and I did not cause the eye of the widow to fail. |
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[17]And if too I ate my morsel alone, and did not impart of it to the orphan; |
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[18](for I nourished them as a father from my youth and guided them from my mother's womb.) |
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[19]And if too I overlooked the naked as he was perishing, and did not clothe him; |
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[20]and if the poor did not bless me, and their shoulders were not warmed with the fleece of my lambs; |
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[21]if I lifted my hand against an orphan, trusting that my strength was far superior to his: |
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[22]let them my shoulder start from the blade-bone, and my arm be crushed off from the elbow. |
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[23]For the fear of the Lord constrained me, and I cannot bear up by reason of his burden. |
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[24]If I made gold my treasure, and if too I trusted the precious stone; |
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[25]and if too I rejoiced when my wealth was abundant, and if too I laid my hand on innumerable treasures: |
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[26](do we not see the shining sun eclipsed, and the moon waning? for they have not power to continue:) |
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[27]and if my heart was secretly deceived, and if I have laid my hand upon my mouth and kissed it: |
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[28]let this also then be reckoned to me as the greatest iniquity: for I should have lied against the Lord Most High. |
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[29]And if too I was glad at the fall of mine enemies, and mine heart said, Aha! |
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[30]let then mine ear hear my curse, and let me be a byword among my people in my affliction. |
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[31]And if too my handmaids have often said, Oh that we might be satisfied with his flesh; (whereas I was very kind: |
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[32]for the stranger did not lodge without, and my door was opened to every one that came:) |
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[33]or if too having sinned unintentionally, I hid my sin; |
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[34](for I did not stand in awe of a great multitude, so as not to declare boldly before them:) and if too I permitted a poor man to go out of my door with an empty bosom: |
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[35](Oh that I had a hearer,)and if I had not feared the hand of the Lord; and as to the written charge which I had against any one, |
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[36]I would place it as a chaplet on my shoulders, and read it. |
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[37]And if I did not read it and return it, having taken nothing from the debtor: |
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[38]If at any time the land groaned against me, and if its furrows mourned together; |
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[39]and if I ate its strength alone without price, and if I too grieved the heart of the owner of the soil, by taking aught from him: |
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[40]then let the nettle come up to me instead of wheat, and a bramble instead of barley. And Job ceased speaking. |