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5:1 "Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? 5:2 Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple. 5:3 I have seen fools taking root, but suddenly I cursed their dwelling. 5:4 Their children are far from safety, they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them. 5:5 The hungry eat their harvest, and they take it even out of the thorns; and the thirsty pant after their wealth. 5:6 For misery does not come from the earth, nor does trouble sprout from the ground; 5:7 but human beings are born to trouble just as sparks fly upward. 5:8 "As for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause. 5:9 He does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number. 5:10 He gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields; 5:11 he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. 5:12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. 5:13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness; and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end. 5:14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noonday as in the night. 5:15 But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth, from the hand of the mighty. 5:16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth. 5:17 "How happy is the one whom God reproves; therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. 5:18 For he wounds, but he binds up; he strikes, but his hands heal. 5:19 He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. 5:20 In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. 5:21 You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. 5:22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. 5:23 For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you. 5:24 You shall know that your tent is safe, you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing. 5:25 You shall know that your descendants will be many, and your offspring like the grass of the earth. 5:26 You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season. 5:27 See, we have searched this out; it is true. Hear, and know it for yourself."