Bible
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- THEN JOB answered,
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- Hear diligently my speech, and let this [your attention] be your consolation [given me].
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- Allow me, and I also will speak; and after I have spoken, mock on.
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- As for me, is my complaint to man or of him? And why should I not be impatient and my spirit be troubled?
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- Look at me and be astonished (appalled); and lay your hand upon your mouth.
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- Even when I remember, I am troubled and afraid; horror and trembling take hold of my flesh.
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- Why do the wicked live, become old, and become mighty in power?
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- Their children are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.
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- Their houses are safe and in peace, without fear; neither is the rod of God upon them.
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- Their bull breeds and fails not; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
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- They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children skip about.
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- They themselves lift up their voices and sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
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- They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol (the unseen state) in a moment and peacefully.
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- Yet they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
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- Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him? [Exod. 5:2.]
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- But notice, [you say] the prosperity of the wicked is not in their power; the mystery [of God's dealings] with the ungodly is far from my comprehension.
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- How often [then] is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains and sorrows to them in His anger? [Luke 12:46.]
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- That they are like stubble before the wind and like chaff that the storm steals and carries away?
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- You say, God lays up [the punishment of the wicked man's] iniquity for his children. Let Him recompense it to the man himself, that he may know and feel it.
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- Let his own eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
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- For what pleasure or interest has a man in his house and family after he is dead, when the number of his months is cut off?
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- Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing that He judges those who are on high? [Rom. 11:34; I Cor. 2:16.]
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- One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet;
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- His pails are full of milk [his veins are filled with nourishment], and the marrow of his bones is fresh and moist,
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- Whereas another man dies in bitterness of soul and never tastes of pleasure or good fortune.
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- They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm spreads a covering over them.
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- Behold, I know your thoughts and plans and the devices with which you would wrong me.
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- For you say, Where is the house of the rich and liberal prince [meaning me]? And where is the tent in which the wicked [Job] dwelt?
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- Have you not asked those who travel this way, and do you not accept their testimony and evidences--
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- That the evil man is [now] spared in the day of calamity and destruction, and they are led forth and away on the day of [God's] wrath?
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- But who declares [a man's] way [and rebukes] him to his face? And who pays him back for what he has done?
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- When he is borne to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.
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- The clods of the valley are sweet to him, and every man shall follow him to a grave, as innumerable people [have gone] before him.
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- How then can you comfort me with empty and futile words, since in your replies there lurks falsehood?
Copyright Information:
Amplified Bible Copyright (c) 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631 All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org
