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[1]Then Job answered and said,
[2]How long will ye vex my soul, and destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus.
[3]Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me.
[4]Yea verily, I have erred in truth, (but the error abides with myself) in having spoken words which it was not right to speak; and my words err, and are unreasonable.
[5]But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach.
[6]Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled me, and has raised his bulwark against me.
[7]Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: or I will cry out, but there is nowhere judgment.
[8]I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.
[9]And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head.
[10]He has torn me around about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree.
[11]And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy.
[12]His troops also came upon me with one accord, liars in wait compassed my ways.
[13]My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognized strangers rather than me: and my friends have become pitiless.
[14]My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me.
[15]As for my household, and my maid-servants, I was a stranger before them.
[16]I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated him.
[17]And I besought my wife, and earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines.
[18]But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me.
[19]They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me.
[20]My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in my teeth.
[21]Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.
[22]Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord does, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
[23]For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book forever,
[24]with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks!
[25]For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me,
[26]and to raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these sufferings: for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord;
[27]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.
[28]But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him, and so find the root of the matter in him?
[29]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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