Chapter 5

  Pray, call, is there any to answer thee? And unto which of the holy ones dost thou turn?  

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  For provocation slayeth the perverse, And envy putteth to death the simple,  

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  I -- I have seen the perverse taking root, And I mark his habitation straightway,  

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  Far are his sons from safety, And they are bruised in the gate, And there is no deliverer.  

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  Whose harvest the hungry doth eat, And even from the thorns taketh it, And the designing swallowed their wealth.  

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  For sorrow cometh not forth from the dust, Nor from the ground springeth up misery.  

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  For man to misery is born, And the sparks go high to fly.  

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  Yet I -- I inquire for God, And for God I give my word,  

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  Doing great things, and there is no searching. Wonderful, till there is no numbering.  

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  Who is giving rain on the face of the land, And is sending waters on the out-places.  

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  To set the low on a high place, And the mourners have been high [in] safety.  

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  Making void thoughts of the subtile, And their hands do not execute wisdom.  

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  Capturing the wise in their subtilty, And the counsel of wrestling ones was hastened,  

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  By day they meet darkness, And as night -- they grope at noon.  

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  And He saveth the wasted from their mouth, And from a strong hand the needy,  

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  And there is hope to the poor, And perverseness hath shut her mouth.  

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  Lo, the happiness of mortal man, God doth reprove him: And the chastisement of the Mighty despise not,  

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  For He doth pain, and He bindeth up, He smiteth, and His hands heal.  

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  In six distresses He delivereth thee, And in seven evil striketh not on thee.  

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  In famine He hath redeemed thee from death, And in battle from the hands of the sword.  

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  When the tongue scourgeth thou art hid, And thou art not afraid of destruction, When it cometh.  

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  At destruction and at hunger thou mockest, And of the beast of the earth, Thou art not afraid.  

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  (For with sons of the field [is] thy covenant, And the beast of the field Hath been at peace with thee.)  

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  And thou hast known that thy tent [is] peace, And inspected thy habitation, and errest not,  

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  And hast known that numerous [is] Thy seed, And thine offspring as the herb of the earth;  

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  Thou comest in full age unto the grave, As the going up of a stalk in its season.  

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  Lo, this -- we searched it out -- it [is] right, hearken; And thou, know for thyself!  

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