Chapter 16

  Then Job answered and said,  

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  I have heard many such things: miserable comforters [are] ye all.  

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  Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?  

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  I also could speak as ye [do]: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.  

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  [But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage [your grief].  

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  Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and [though] I forbear, what am I eased?  

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  But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.  

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  And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, [which] is a witness [against me]: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.  

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  He teareth [me] in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.  

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  They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.  

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  God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.  

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  I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken [me] by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.  

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  His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.  

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  He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.  

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  I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.  

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  My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death;  

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  Not for [any] injustice in mine hands: also my prayer [is] pure.  

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  O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.  

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  Also now, behold, my witness [is] in heaven, and my record [is] on high.  

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  My friends scorn me: [but] mine eye poureth out [tears] unto God.  

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  O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man [pleadeth] for his neighbour!  

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  When a few years are come, then I shall go the way [whence] I shall not return.  

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