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/Wis/ - Wisdom
<< Esther (Greek)
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The Book of Wisdom or The Wisdom of Solomon
The Book of Wisdom or The Wisdom of Solomon
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And upon the third day, when she had ended her prayers, she laid away her mourning garments, and put on her glorious apparel.
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And being gloriously adorned, after she had called upon God, who is the beholder and saviour of all things, she took two maids with her:
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And upon the one she leaned, as carrying herself daintily;
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And the other followed, bearing up her train.
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And she was ruddy through the perfection of her beauty, and her countenance was cheerful and very amiable: but her heart was in anguish for fear.
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Then having passed through all the doors, she stood before the king, who sat upon his royal throne, and was clothed with all his robes of majesty, all glittering with gold and precious stones; and he was very dreadful.
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Then lifting up his countenance that shone with majesty, he looked very fiercely upon her: and the queen fell down, and was pale, and fainted, and bowed herself upon the head of the maid that went before her.
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Then God changed the spirit of the king into mildness, who in a fear leaped from his throne, and took her in his arms, till she came to herself again, and comforted her with loving words and said unto her,
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Esther, what is the matter? I am thy brother, be of good cheer:
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Thou shalt not die, though our our commandment be general: come near.
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And so be held up his golden sceptre, and laid it upon her neck,
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And embraced her, and said, Speak unto me.
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Then said she unto him, I saw thee, my lord, as an angel of God, and my heart was troubled for fear of thy majesty.
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For wonderful art thou, lord, and thy countenance is full of grace.
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And as she was speaking, she fell down for faintness.
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Then the king was troubled, and all his servants comforted her.
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The great king Artexerxes unto the princes and governors of an hundred and seven and twenty provinces from India unto Ethiopia, and unto all our faithful subjects, greeting.
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Many, the more often they are honoured with the great bounty of their gracious princes, the more proud they are waxen,
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And endeavour to hurt not our subjects only, but not being able to bear abundance, do take in hand to practise also against those that do them good:
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And take not only thankfulness away from among men, but also lifted up with the glorious words of lewd persons, that were never good, they think to escape the justice of God, that seeth all things and hateth evil.
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Oftentimes also fair speech of those, that are put in trust to manage their friends’ affairs, hath caused many that are in authority to be partakers of innocent blood, and hath enwrapped them in remediless calamities:
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Beguiling with the falsehood and deceit of their lewd disposition the innocency and goodness of princes.
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Now ye may see this, as we have declared, not so much by ancient histories, as ye may, if ye search what hath been wickedly done of late through the pestilent behaviour of them that are unworthily placed in authority.
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And we must take care for the time to come, that our kingdom may be quiet and peaceable for all men,
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Both by changing our purposes, and always judging things that are evident with more equal proceeding.
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For Aman, a Macedonian, the son of Amadatha, being indeed a stranger from the Persian blood, and far distant from our goodness, and as a stranger received of us,
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Had so far forth obtained the favour that we shew toward every nation, as that he was called our father, and was continually honoured of all the next person unto the king.
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But he, not bearing his great dignity, went about to deprive us of our kingdom and life:
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Having by manifold and cunning deceits sought of us the destruction, as well of Mardocheus, who saved our life, and continually procured our good, as also of blameless Esther, partaker of our kingdom, with their whole nation.
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For by these means he thought, finding us destitute of friends to have translated the kingdom of the Persians to the Macedonians.
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But we find that the Jews, whom this wicked wretch hath delivered to utter destruction, are no evildoers, but live by most just laws:
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And that they be children of the most high and most mighty, living God, who hath ordered the kingdom both unto us and to our progenitors in the most excellent manner.
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Wherefore ye shall do well not to put in execution the letters sent unto you by Aman the son of Amadatha.
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For he that was the worker of these things, is hanged at the gates of Susa with all his family: God, who ruleth all things, speedily rendering vengeance to him according to his deserts.
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Therefore ye shall publish the copy of this letter in all places, that the Jews may freely live after their own laws.
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And ye shall aid them, that even the same day, being the thirteenth day of the twelfth month Adar, they may be avenged on them, who in the time of their affliction shall set upon them.
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For Almighty God hath turned to joy unto them the day, wherein the chosen people should have perished.
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Ye shall therefore among your solemn feasts keep it an high day with all feasting:
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That both now and hereafter there may be safety to us and the well affected Persians; but to those which do conspire against us a memorial of destruction.
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Therefore every city and country whatsoever, which shall not do according to these things, shall be destroyed without mercy with fire and sword, and shall be made not only unpassable for men, but also most hateful to wild beasts and fowls for ever.
The Book of Wisdom or The Wisdom of Solomon
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Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth: think of the Lord with a good (heart,) and in simplicity of heart seek him.
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For he will be found of them that tempt him not; and sheweth himself unto such as do not distrust him.
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For froward thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise.
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For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter; nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin.
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For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in.
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For wisdom is a loving spirit; and will not acquit a blasphemer of his words: for God is witness of his reins, and a true beholder of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.
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For the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world: and that which containeth all things hath knowledge of the voice.
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Therefore he that speaketh unrighteous things cannot be hid: neither shall vengeance, when it punisheth, pass by him.
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For inquisition shall be made into the counsels of the ungodly: and the sound of his words shall come unto the Lord for the manifestation of his wicked deeds.
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For the ear of jealousy heareth all things: and the noise of murmurings is not hid.
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Therefore beware of murmuring, which is unprofitable; and refrain your tongue from backbiting: for there is no word so secret, that shall go for nought: and the mouth that belieth slayeth the soul.
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Seek not death in the error of your life: and pull not upon yourselves destruction with the works of your hands.
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For God made not death: neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living.
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For he created all things, that they might have their being: and the generations of the world were healthful; and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon the earth:
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(For righteousness is immortal:)
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But ungodly men with their works and words called it to them: for when they thought to have it their friend, they consumed to nought, and made a covenant with it, because they are worthy to take part with it.
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For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.
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For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:
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Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,
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And our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof.
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For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again.
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Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.
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Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us:
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Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered:
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Let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our portion, and our lot is this.
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Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.
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Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.
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Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education.
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He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.
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He was made to reprove our thoughts.
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He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, his ways are of another fashion.
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We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.
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Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.
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For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
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Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.
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Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.
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Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.
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As for the mysteries of God, they kn ew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.
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For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.
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Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.
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But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.
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In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery,
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And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace.
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For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality.
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And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.
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As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering.
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And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble.
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They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.
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They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he hath care for his elect.
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But the ungodly shall be punished according to their own imaginations, which have neglected the righteous, and forsaken the Lord.
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For whoso despiseth wisdom and nurture, he is miserable, and their hope is vain, their labours unfruitful, and their works unprofitable:
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Their wives are foolish, and their children wicked:
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Their offspring is cursed. Wherefore blessed is the barren that is undefiled, which hath not known the sinful bed: she shall have fruit in the visitation of souls.
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And blessed is the eunuch, which with his hands hath wrought no iniquity, nor imagined wicked things against God: for unto him shall be given the special gift of faith, and an inheritance in the temple of the Lord more acceptable to his mind.
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For glorious is the fruit of good labours: and the root of wisdom shall never fall away.
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As for the children of adulterers, they shall not come to their perfection, and the seed of an unrighteous bed shall be rooted out.
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For though they live long, yet shall they be nothing regarded: and their last age shall be without honour.
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Or, if they die quickly, they have no hope, neither comfort in the day of trial.
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For horrible is the end of the unrighteous generation.
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Better it is to have no children, and to have virtue: for the memorial thereof is immortal: because it is known with God, and with men.
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When it is present, men take example at it; and when it is gone, they desire it: it weareth a crown, and triumpheth for ever, having gotten the victory, striving for undefiled rewards.
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But the multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not thrive, nor take deep rooting from bastard slips, nor lay any fast foundation.
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For though they flourish in branches for a time; yet standing not last, they shall be shaken with the wind, and through the force of winds they shall be rooted out.
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The imperfect branches shall be broken off, their fruit unprofitable, not ripe to eat, yea, meet for nothing.
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For children begotten of unlawful beds are witnesses of wickedness against their parents in their trial.
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But though the righteous be prevented with death, yet shall he be in rest.
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For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor that is measured by number of years.
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But wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age.
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He pleased God, and was beloved of him: so that living among sinners he was translated.
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Yea speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.
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For the bewitching of naughtiness doth obscure things that are honest; and the wandering of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind.
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He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time:
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For his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked.
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This the people saw, and understood it not, neither laid they up this in their minds, That his grace and mercy is with his saints, and that he hath respect unto his chosen.
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Thus the righteous that is dead shall condemn the ungodly which are living; and youth that is soon perfected the many years and old age of the unrighteous.
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For they shall see the end of the wise, and shall not understand what God in his counsel hath decreed of him, and to what end the Lord hath set him in safety.
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They shall see him, and despise him; but God shall laugh them to scorn: and they shall hereafter be a vile carcase, and a reproach among the dead for evermore.
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For he shall rend them, and cast them down headlong, that they shall be speechless; and he shall shake them from the foundation; and they shall be utterly laid waste, and be in sorrow; and their memorial shall perish.
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And when they cast up the accounts of their sins, they shall come with fear: and their own iniquities shall convince them to their face.
5
Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labours.
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When they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for.
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And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say within themselves, This was he, whom we had sometimes in derision, and a proverb of reproach:
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We fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honour:
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How is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints!
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Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined unto us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us.
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We wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness and destruction: yea, we have gone through deserts, where there lay no way: but as for the way of the Lord, we have not known it.
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What hath pride profited us? or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us?
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All those things are passed away like a shadow, and as a post that hasted by;
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And as a ship that passeth over the waves of the water, which when it is gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found, neither the pathway of the keel in the waves;
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Or as when a bird hath flown through the air, there is no token of her way to be found, but the light air being beaten with the stroke of her wings and parted with the violent noise and motion of them, is passed through, and therein afterwards no sign where she went is to be found;
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Or like as when an arrow is shot at a mark, it parteth the air, which immediately cometh together again, so that a man cannot know where it went through:
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Even so we in like manner, as soon as we were born, began to draw to our end, and had no sign of virtue to shew; but were consumed in our own wickedness.
14
For the hope of the ungodly is like dust that is blown away with the wind; like a thin froth that is driven away with the storm; like as the smoke which is dispersed here and there with a tempest, and passeth away as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day.
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But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High.
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Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them.
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He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies.
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He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet.
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He shall take holiness for an invincible shield.
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His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise.
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Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark.
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And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them.
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Yea, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty.
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