| Chapter 5 |
1 | 'Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
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2 | For resentment kills the foolish man, And jealousy kills the simple.
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3 | I have seen the foolish taking root, But suddenly I cursed his habitation.
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4 | His children are far from safety, They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,
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5 | Whose harvest the hungry eats up, Takes it even out of the thorns; The snare gapes for their substance.
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6 | For affliction doesn't come forth from the dust, Neither does trouble spring out of the ground;
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7 | But man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.
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8 | 'But as for me, I would seek God, To God would I commit my cause;
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9 | Who does great things that can't be fathomed, Marvelous things without number;
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10 | Who gives rain on the earth, And sends waters on the fields;
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11 | So that he sets up on high those who are low, Those who mourn are exalted to safety.
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12 | He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands can't perform their enterprise.
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13 | He takes the wise in their own craftiness; The counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.
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14 | They meet with darkness in the day-time, And grope at noonday as in the night.
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15 | But he saves from the sword of their mouth, Even the needy from the hand of the mighty.
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16 | So the poor has hope, And injustice shuts her mouth.
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17 | 'Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
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18 | For he wounds, and binds up; He injures, and his hands make whole.
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19 | He will deliver you in six troubles; Yes, in seven there shall no evil touch you.
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20 | In famine he will redeem you from death; In war, from the power of the sword.
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21 | You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, Neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.
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22 | At destruction and dearth you shall laugh, Neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth.
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23 | For you shall be in league with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you.
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24 | You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing.
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25 | You shall know also that your seed shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth.
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26 | You shall come to your grave in a full age, Like a shock of grain comes in its season.
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27 | Look this, we have searched it, so it is; Hear it, and know it for your good.'
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