| Revised Standard Version w/ Apocrypha (RSVA) |
New International Version (NIV) |
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1 Then Job answered:
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1 Then Job replied:
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2 "I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.
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2 "I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all!
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3 Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
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3 Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?
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4 I also could speak as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you.
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4 I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.
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5 I could strengthen you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
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5 But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
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6 "If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
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6 "Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.
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7 Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company.
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7 Surely, O God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.
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8 And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; and my leanness has risen up against me, it testifies to my face.
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8 You have bound me--and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
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9 He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
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9 God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
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10 Men have gaped at me with their mouth, they have struck me insolently upon the cheek, they mass themselves together against me.
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10 Men open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.
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11 God gives me up to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
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11 God has turned me over to evil men and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
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12 I was at ease, and he broke me asunder; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target,
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12 All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;
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13 his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys, and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground.
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13 his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.
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14 He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior.
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14 Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.
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15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and have laid my strength in the dust.
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15 "I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.
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16 My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness;
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16 My face is red with weeping, deep shadows ring my eyes;
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17 although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
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17 yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.
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18 "O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place.
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18 "O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!
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19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high.
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19 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
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20 My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God,
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20 My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;
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21 that he would maintain the right of a man with God, like that of a man with his neighbor.
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21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.
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22 For when a few years have come I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
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22 "Only a few years will pass before I go on the journey of no return.
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| Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. (Revised Standard Version w/ Apocrypha) |
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) |
