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Then Job answered and said,
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I know of a truth that it is so: For how shall a mortal man be just before the Lord?
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For if he would enter into judgment with him, God would not hearken to him, So that he should answer to one of his charges of a thousand.
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For he is wise in mind, and mighty, and great: Who has hardened himself against him and endured?
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Who wears out the mountains, and men know it not: Who overturns them in anger.
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Who shakes the earth under heaven from its foundations, And its pillars totter.
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Who commands the sun, and it rises not; And he seals up the stars.
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Who alone has stretched out the heavens, And walks on the sea as on firm ground.
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Who makes Pleiades, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south.
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Who does great and unsearchable things; Glorious also and excellent things, innumerable.
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If ever he should go beyond me, I shall not see him: If he should pass by me, neither thus have I known it.
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If he would take away, who shall turn him back? Or who shall say to him, What hast thou done?
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For if he has turned away his anger, The whales under heaven have stooped under him.
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Oh then that he would hearken to me, or judge my cause.
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For though I be righteous, he will not hearken to me: I will entreat his judgment.
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And if I should call and he should not hearken, I cannot believe that he has listened to my voice.
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Let him not crush me with a dark storm: But he has made my bruises many without cause.
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For he suffers me not to take breath, But he has filled me with bitterness.
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For indeed he is strong in power: Who then shall resist his judgment?
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For though I should seem righteous, my mouth will be profane: And though I should seem blameless, I shall be proved perverse.
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For even if I have sinned, I know it not in my soul: But my life is taken away.
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Wherefore I said, Wrath slays the great and mighty man.
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For the worthless die, But the righteous are laughed to scorn.
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For they are delivered into the hands of the unrighteous man: He covers the faces of the judges of the earth: But if it be not he, who is it?
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But my life is swifter than a post: My days have fled away, and they knew it not.
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Or again, is there a trace of their path left by ships? Or is there one of the flying eagle as it seeks its prey?
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And if I should say, I will forget to speak, I will bow down my face and groan;
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I quake in all my limbs, For I know that thou wilt not leave me alone as innocent.
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But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?
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For if I should wash myself with snow, And purge myself with pure hands,
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Thou hadst thoroughly plunged me in filth, And my garment had abhorred me.
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For thou art not man like me, with whom I could contend, That we might come together to judgment.
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Would that he our mediator were present, and a reprover, And one who should hear the cause between both.
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Let him remove his rod from me, And let not his fear terrify me:
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So shall I not be afraid, but I will speak: For I am not thus conscious of guilt.