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So Job proceeded and went forth in his communication, saying:
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Oh that I were as I was in the months by past, and in the days when God preserved me:
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When his light shined upon my head: when I went after the same light and shining even thorow the darkness.
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As it stood with me, when I was wealthy and had enough: when God prospered my house:
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When the Almighty was with me: when my household folks stood about me:
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When my ways ran over with butter, and when the stony rocks gave me rivers of oil:
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When I went thorow the city unto the gate, and when they set me a chair in the street:
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When the young men (as soon as they saw me) hid themselves, and when the aged arose, and stood up unto me:
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when the princes left off their talking, and laid their hand to their mouth:
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when the mighty kept still their voice, and when their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouths.
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When all they that heard me, called me happy: and when all they that saw me, wished me good.
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For I delivered the poor when he cried, and the fatherless that wanted help.
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He that should have been lost, gave me a good word, and the widow's heart praised me.
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And why? I put upon me righteousness, which covered me as a garment, and equity was my crown.
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I was an eye unto the blind, and a foot to the lame,
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I was a father unto the poor, and when I knew not their cause, I sought it out diligently.
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I brake the chafes of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of their teeth.
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Therefore, I thought verily, that I should have died in my nest: and that my days should have been as many as the sands of the sea.
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For my root was spread out by the water's side, and the dew lay upon my corn.
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My honor increased |encreased| more and more, and my bow was ever the stronger in my hand.
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Unto me men gave ear, me they regarded, and with silence they tarried for my counsel.
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If I had spoken, they would have it none other ways, my words were so well taken among them.
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They waited for me, as the earth doth for the rain: and gaped upon me, as the ground doth to receive the latter shower.
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When I laughed, they knew well it was not earnest: and this testimony of my countenance pleased them nothing at all.
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When I agreed unto their way, I was the chief, and sat as a king among his servants: Or as one that comforteth such as be in heaviness.