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¹ But call, if any one will hearken to thee, or if thou shalt see any of the holy angels. ² For wrath destroys the foolish one, and envy slays him that has gone astray. ³ And I have seen foolish ones taking root: but suddenly their habitation was devoured. ⁴ Let their children be far from safety, and let them be crushed at the doors of vile men, and let there be no deliverer. ⁵ For what they have collected, the just shall eat; but they shall not be delivered out of calamities: let their strength be utterly exhausted.

⁶ For labour cannot by any means come out of the earth, nor shall trouble spring out of the mountains: ⁷ yet man is born to labour, and even so the vulture’s young seek the high places. ⁸ Nevertheless I will beseech the Lord, and will call upon the Lord, the sovereign of all; ⁹ who does great things and untraceable, glorious things also, and marvellous, of which there is no number: ¹⁰ who gives rain upon the earth, sending water on the earth: ¹¹ who exalts the lowly, and raises up them that are lost: ¹² frustrating the counsels of the crafty, and their hands shall not perform the truth: ¹³ who takes the wise in their wisdom, and subverts the counsel of the crafty ¹⁴ In the day darkness shall come upon them, and let them grope in the noon-day even as in the night: ¹⁵ and let them perish in war, and let the weak escape from the hand of the mighty. ¹⁶ And let the weak have hope, but the mouth of the unjust be stopped.

¹⁷ But blessed is the man whom the Lord has reproved; and reject not thou the chastening of the Almighty. ¹⁸ for he causes a man to be in pain, and restores him again: he smites, and his hands heal. ¹⁹ Six time he shall deliver thee out of distresses: and in the seventh harm shall not touch thee. ²⁰ In famine he shall deliver thee from death: and in war he shall free thee from the power of the sword. ²¹ He shall hide thee from the scourge of the tongue: and thou shalt not be afraid of coming evils. ²² Thou shalt laugh at the unrighteous and the lawless: and thou shalt not be afraid of wild beasts. ²³ For the wild beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. ²⁴ Then shalt thou know that thy house shall be at peace, and the provision for thy tabernacle shall not fail. ²⁵ And thou shalt know that thy seed shall be abundant; and thy children shall be like the herbage of the field. ²⁶ And thou shalt come to the grave like ripe corn reaped in its season, or as a heap of the corn-flour collected in proper time. ²⁷ Behold, we have thus sought out these matters; these are what we have heard: but do thou reflect with thyself, if thou hast done anything wrong.