The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Job
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Chapter 6
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But Job answered:
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Oh that I had such a pair of scales as might weigh provocation of mine against the ills I suffer!
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The sand on the shore of ocean could not match the burden of them, and do you wonder that my utterance is all reproach?
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Deep the Lord’s arrows rankle in me, draining my life; all his terrors are arrayed against me.
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Brays the wild ass, be sure he lacks pasture; lows the ox, he stands before an empty crib.
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Would you have me relish food unseasoned, lick my lips over the taste that brings death?
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The food I had no stomach for, in my hard straits eat I must.

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Might it be granted, this is the boon I long for, this the request I would make of God,
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that he would finish what he has begun, crush me altogether, strike a full blow and make an end of me!
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Consolation enough, if he will but torment me to my death; no repining, then, against his will!
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In what strength should I hold out? In what hope repose?
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Have I the endurance of flint? Is my flesh brass?
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Help in myself is none; human aid keeps its distance from me now.
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Nay, who defies the Lord’s vengeance more surely than friend who refuses compassion to a friend?
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See how the men that are my brothers have failed me, fickle as the mountain brooks that run headlong down their ravines;
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first shrivelled with frost, then piled high with snow,
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then, when the snows melt, gone, vanished away at the first touch of the heat!
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This way and that their winding channels turn, but all to no purpose, all are lost to view.
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They must take heed, now, that would pass by Thema, and travel into Saba; they must wait awhile on their journey.
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Some hope I had in my friends, but all is disappointment; with eyes that will not meet mine, they come to visit me.

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Ay, you have come, but finding me so sorely smitten you dread my company.
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It was little enough I asked; I never bade you diminish your own wealth by bringing gifts to me,
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never begged your aid to rid me of some enemy that was too strong for me.
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Come, be my instructors; I will hear you out in silence; tell me what is the fault I have committed, all unknowing?
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Ill fare the claims of truth with such as you; not one of you can shew me in the wrong,
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yet for very love of reproof you must be reproving still, all your words wasted on the air.
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Is it well done, to make a prey of the defenceless, to conspire against the good name of your friend?
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Browbeat me, then, at your pleasure; try if close scrutiny can prove me false;
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only let there be no contentiousness in your pleadings; in all honesty bring your complaint.
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You will not fasten guilt on any word of mine; reckless utterance never these lips shall frame.