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- ¶ CALL now, I pray you;
is there any one to answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn?
- 2
- For anger kills the foolish man, and enmity slays the silly one.
- 3
- I have seen the wicked prosper;
but his habitation is suddenly destroyed.
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- His children are far from salvation, and they are humiliated at the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.
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- His harvest the hungry eat up;
and they shall pour out water to the thirsty, and the thirsty devour their substance.
- 6
- ¶ For falsehood does not come forth from the dust, nor does iniquity spring out of the ground;
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- For man is born for trouble, as sure as the wild birds fly.
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- But as for me.
I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause,
- 9
- Who has done great things without limit;
and marvellous things without number.
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- Who gives rain upon the earth, and sends water upon the streets;
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- To set up on high those that are lowly;
and the meek shall be exalted by salvation.
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- He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot wisely perform their enterprise.
- 13
- He takes the wise in their subtlety;
and the counsel of the crafty is frustrated.
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- They handle things in the daytime as though they were in darkness, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
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- But he saves their lives from the sword, and the poor from the hand of the mighty.
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- So there shall be hope for the poor, but the wicked shall shut his mouth.
- 17
- ¶ Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects;
and he who does not despise the chastening of the Almighty;
- 18
- For it is he who wounds, and binds up;
he smites, and his hands heal.
- 19
- He shall deliver you in six troubles;
yea, in seven there shall no evil touch you.
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- In famine he shall deliver you from death;
and in war from the power of the sword.
- 21
- You shall be protected from the scourge of the tongue;
and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes.
- 22
- At plunder and famine you shall laugh;
and you shall not fear the wild beasts.
- 23
- For you shall be in league with the stones of the field;
and the wild beasts shall surrender to you.
- 24
- You shall know that your tabernacle shall be in peace;
and you shall return to your habitation, and shall not sin.
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- You shall know also that your descendants shall be many, and your offspring like the grass of the earth.
- 26
- You shall come to your grave gently, like a shock of grain in its season.
- 27
- Lo this thing we have searched, and it is so;
we have heard it; and you know it for your good.
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