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If you would earnestly seek God And make your supplication to the Almighty,
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If you were pure and upright, Surely now He would awake for you, And prosper your rightful dwelling place.
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Though your beginning was small, Yet your latter end would increase abundantly.
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"For inquire, please, of the former age, And consider the things discovered by their fathers;
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For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days on earth are a shadow.
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Will they not teach you and tell you, And utter words from their heart?
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"Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? Can the reeds flourish without water?
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While it is yet green and not cut down, It withers before any other plant.
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So are the paths of all who forget God; And the hope of the hypocrite shall perish,
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Whose confidence shall be cut off, And whose trust is a spider's web.
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He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure.
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He grows green in the sun, And his branches spread out in his garden.
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His roots wrap around the rock heap, And look for a place in the stones.
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If he is destroyed from his place, Then it will deny him, saying, 'I have not seen you.'
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"Behold, this is the joy of His way, And out of the earth others will grow.
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Behold, God will not cast away the blameless, Nor will He uphold the evildoers.
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He will yet fill your mouth with laughing, And your lips with rejoicing.
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Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, And the dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing."