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3
1 O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the soul in anguish the troubled spirit, cries to you. 2 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy; for you are merciful: and have pity upon us, because we have sinned before you. 3 For you endure for ever, and we perish utterly. 4 O Lord Almighty, you God of Israel, hear now the prayers of the dead Israelites, and of their children, which have sinned before you, and not listened to the voice of you their God: for the which cause these plagues cleave to us. 5 Remember not the iniquities of our forefathers: but think upon your power and your name now at this time. 6 For you are the Lord our God, and you, O Lord, will we praise. 7 And for this cause you have put your fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon your name, and praise you in our captivity: for we have called to mind all the iniquity of our forefathers, that sinned before you. 8 Behold, we are yet this day in our captivity, where you have scattered us, for a reproach and a curse, and to be subject to payments, according to all the iniquities of our fathers, which departed from the Lord our God. 9 Hear, Israel, the commandments of life: give ear to understand wisdom. 10 How is it Israel, that you are in your enemies' land, that you have become old in a strange country, that you are defiled with the dead, 11 That you are counted with them that go down into the grave? 12 You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom. 13 For if you had walked in the way of God, you should have dwelled in peace for ever. 14 Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding; that you may know also where is length of days, and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace. 15 Who has found out her place? or who has come into her treasures? 16 Where are the princes of the heathen become, and such as ruled the beasts upon the earth; 17 They that had their pastime with the fowls of the air, and they that hoarded up silver and gold, wherein men trust, and made no end of their getting? 18 For they that wrought in silver, and were so careful, and whose works are unsearchable, 19 They are vanished and gone down to the grave, and others are come up in their steads. 20 Young men have seen light, and lived upon the earth: but the way of knowledge have they not known, 21 Nor understood the paths thereof, nor laid hold of it: their children were far off from that way. 22 It has not been heard of in Chanaan, neither has it been seen in Theman. 23 The Agarenes that seek wisdom upon earth, the merchants of Meran and of Theman, the authors of fables, and searchers out of understanding; none of these have known the way of wisdom, or remember her paths. 24 O Israel, how great is the house of God! and how large is the place of his possession! 25 Great, and has none end; high, and unmeasurable. 26 There were the giants famous from the beginning, that were of so great stature, and so expert in war. 27 Those did not the Lord choose, neither gave he the way of knowledge to them: 28 But they were destroyed, because they had no wisdom, and perished through their own foolishness. 29 Who has gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? 30 Who has gone over the sea, and found her, and will bring her for pure gold? 31 No man knows her way, nor thinks of her path. 32 But he that knows all things knows her, and has found her out with his understanding: he that prepared the earth for evermore has filled it with four-footed beasts: 33 He that sends forth light, and it goes, calls it again, and it obeys him with fear. 34 The stars shined in their watches, and rejoiced: when he calls them, they say, Here we be; and so with cheerfulness they showed light to him that made them. 35 This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of him 36 He has found out all the way of knowledge, and has given it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. 37 Afterward did he show himself upon earth, and conversed with men.

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