“Remember: (A)who that was innocent ever perished?
    Or where were the upright cut off?

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“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?(A)
    Where were the upright ever destroyed?(B)

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25 I have been young, and now am old,
    yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
    or his children (A)begging for bread.

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25 I was young and now I am old,
    yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken(A)
    or their children begging(B) bread.

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then (A)the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,[a] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Peter 2:9 Or temptations

if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials(A) and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.(B)

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When (A)the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, (B)“No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, (C)Justice[a] has not allowed him to live.”

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Footnotes

  1. Acts 28:4 Or justice

When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand,(A) they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.”(B)

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He does not withdraw his (A)eyes from the righteous,
    but with (B)kings on the throne
    he sets them forever, and they are (C)exalted.

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He does not take his eyes off the righteous;(A)
    he enthrones them with kings(B)
    and exalts them forever.(C)

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20 “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
    nor take the hand of evildoers.

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20 “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless(A)
    or strengthen the hands of evildoers.(B)

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Death Comes to All

But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, (A)how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are (B)in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. (C)It is the same for all, since (D)the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,[a] to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who (E)swears is as he who shuns an oath.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 9:2 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew lacks and the evil

A Common Destiny for All

So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.(A) All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad,[a] the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,
    so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
    so with those who are afraid to take them.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 9:2 Septuagint (Aquila), Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew does not have and the bad.

15 In my (A)vain[a] life I have seen everything. There is (B)a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who (C)prolongs his life in his evildoing.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 7:15 The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a “vapor” or “mere breath” (see note on 1:2)

15 In this meaningless life(A) of mine I have seen both of these:

the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
    and the wicked living long in their wickedness.(B)

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22 It is all one; therefore I say,
    ‘He (A)destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
23 When (B)disaster brings sudden death,
    he mocks at the calamity[a] of the innocent.

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Footnotes

  1. Job 9:23 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain

22 It is all the same; that is why I say,
    ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’(A)
23 When a scourge(B) brings sudden death,
    he mocks the despair of the innocent.(C)

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