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Then aunswered Bildad the Suhite, & said:
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Howe long wilt thou talke of such thinges?
howe long shall the wordes of thy mouth be as a mightie wind?
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Doth God paruert the thing that is lawfull?
or doth the almightie destroy the thing that is right?
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For seyng that thy sonnes sinned against him, did not he send them into the place of their iniquitie?
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If thou wouldest nowe resorte vnto God be times, and make thy prayer to the almightie,
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If thou wouldest liue a pure and godly life: shoulde he not awake vp vnto thee immediatly, and make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous?
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In so much that wherin so euer thou haddest litle afore, thou shouldest haue nowe great aboundaunce.
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Enquire I pray thee of the former age, and search diligently among their fathers:
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(For we are but of yesterday, and consider not that our dayes vpon earth are but a shadowe.)
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Shall not they shew thee, and tel thee, yea and gladly confesse the same, and vtter the wordes of their heart?
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May a rushe be greene without moystnesse?
or may the grasse growe without water?
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No, but whilste it is nowe in his greennesse, though it be not cut downe, yet withereth it before any other hearbe:
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So are the pathes of al that forget God, and the hypocrites hope shall come to naught.
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His confidence shalbe destroyed, and his trust shalbe a spiders webbe.
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He shal leane vpon his house, but it shal not stande: he shall holde him fast by it, yet shall it not endure.
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It is a greene [tree] before the sunne, & shooteth foorth the braunches ouer his garden.
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The rootes thereof are wrapped about the fountayne, and are folden about the house of stones.
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If any plucke it from his place, and it denie, saying, I haue not seene thee:
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Behold it will reioyce by this meanes, if it may growe in another mould.
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Beholde, God will not cast away a vertuous man, neither wil he helpe the vngodly.
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Thy mouth shall he fill with laughing, and thy lippes with gladnesse.
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They also that hate thee shalbe clothed with shame, & the dwelling of the vngodly shall come to naught.