The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Job
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Chapter 16
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But Job answered:
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Old tales and cold comfort; you are all alike.
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Words are but wind; there is no end to them, and they cost thee nothing.
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Believe me, I could do as well, were you in my case,
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talk the language of consolation, and mock you all the while,
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speak of encouragement; my lips should tremble with a show of pity.✻
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But here is grief words cannot assuage, nor silence banish;
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grief that bows me down till my whole frame is lifeless;
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these furrowed cheeks are the witness of it.
And now a false accuser dares me to my face and baits me!✻
And now a false accuser dares me to my face and baits me!✻
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One that vents all his spite against me, gnashes his teeth malignantly, watches me with fierce eyes like an enemy.
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Mouths that deride me, hands that smite me on the cheek in reproof, hearts that delight in my anguish,
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to what ill neighbourhood God has condemned me, what tyrants hold me in their grip!
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So free from care my life was, and now, suddenly as though a wild beast had fastened on me, dashed me to the ground, he has broken that life to pieces. I am a mark for his archery,
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his arrows are all about me; still they pierce me to the marrow, drain my life,✻
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wound upon wound; giant hands assail me.
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No wonder if I go clad in sackcloth, disfigured with ashes,
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if my face is swollen with weeping, and on my eyelids the darkness falls.
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Such is the reward of a guiltless life, of prayer offered without stain.
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I charge thee, earth, to leave my blood unburied, never to muffle the echoes of my protest;
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there is one in high heaven that knows the truth and must bear witness.
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Friends, prate on; these tears of mine issue their challenge to a God!
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Ah, could but a mortal bring God to justice, as man impleads man!
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Mortal am I; swiftly my years pass, and by the road I tread there is no returning.
