1
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Then Job defended himself: |
2
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"I've had all I can take of your talk. What a bunch of miserable comforters! |
3
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Is there no end to your windbag speeches? What's your problem that you go on and on like this? |
4
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If you were in my shoes, I could talk just like you. I could put together a terrific harangue and really let you have it. |
5
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But I'd never do that. I'd console and comfort, make things better, not worse! |
6
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"When I speak up, I feel no better; if I say nothing, that doesn't help either. |
7
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I feel worn down. God, you have wasted me totally--me and my family! |
8
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You've shriveled me like a dried prune, showing the world that you're against me. My gaunt face stares back at me from the mirror, a mute witness to your treatment of me. |
9
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Your anger tears at me, your teeth rip me to shreds, your eyes burn holes in me--God, my enemy! |
10
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People take one look at me and gasp. Contemptuous, they slap me around and gang up against me. |
11
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And God just stands there and lets them do it, lets wicked people do what they want with me. |
12
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I was contentedly minding my business when God beat me up. He grabbed me by the neck and threw me around. He set me up as his target, |
13
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then rounded up archers to shoot at me. Merciless, they shot me full of arrows; bitter bile poured from my gut to the ground. |
14
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He burst in on me, onslaught after onslaught, charging me like a mad bull. |
15
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"I sewed myself a shroud and wore it like a shirt; I lay face down in the dirt. |
16
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Now my face is blotched red from weeping; look at the dark shadows under my eyes, |
17
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Even though I've never hurt a soul and my prayers are sincere! |
18
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"O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me! Don't muffle my cry! |
19
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There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name-- |
20
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My Champion, my Friend, while I'm weeping my eyes out before God. |
21
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I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor. |
22
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"Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return. |
Job 16:1 English Language Bible Words basic statistical display
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