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- Then Job answered and said:
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- No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
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- But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you;
yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
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- I am as one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbour, a man that called upon God, and He answered him;
the just, the innocent man is a laughing-stock,
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- A contemptible brand in the thought of him that is at ease, a thing ready for them whose foot slippeth.
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- The tents of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure, in whatsoever God bringeth into their hand.
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- But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;
and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee;
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- Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;
and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee;
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- Who knoweth not among all these, that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?
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- In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. -
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- Doth not the ear try words, even as the palate tasteth its food?
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- Is wisdom with aged men, and understanding in length of days? -
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- With Him is wisdom and might;
He hath counsel and understanding.
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- Behold, He breaketh down, and it cannot be built again;
He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
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- Behold, He withholdeth the waters, and they dry up;
also He sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
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- With Him is strength and sound wisdom;
the deceived and the deceiver are His.
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- He leadeth counsellors away stripped, and judges maketh He fools.
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- He looseth the bond of kings, and bindeth their loins with a girdle.
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- He leadeth priests away stripped, and overthroweth the mighty.
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- He removeth the speech of men of trust, and taketh away the sense of the elders.
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- He poureth contempt upon princes, and looseth the belt of the strong.
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- He uncovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
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- He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them;
He enlargeth the nations, and leadeth them away.
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- He taketh away the heart of the chiefs of the people of the land, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
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- They grope in the dark without light, and He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
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