Chapter 5

  Call now, if there is any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?  

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  For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.  

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  I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.  

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  His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.  

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  Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.  

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  Although affliction cometh not forth from the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;  

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  Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.  

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  I would seek to God, and to God would I commit my cause:  

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  Who doeth great things and unsearchable; wonderful things without number:  

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  Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:  

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  To set on high those that are low: that those who mourn may be exalted to safety.  

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  He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.  

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  He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.  

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  They meet with darkness in the day-time, and grope in the noon-day as in the night.  

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  But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.  

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  So the poor hath hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.  

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  Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:  

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  For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.  

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  He will deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.  

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  In famine he will redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.  

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  Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.  

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  At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.  

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  For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.  

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  And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle will be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.  

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  Thou shalt know also that thy seed will be great, and thy offspring as the grass of the earth.  

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  Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, as a shock of corn cometh in in its season.  

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  Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.  

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