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12 All of you have seen it yourselves;
    why then have you become altogether vain?

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Take Life as It Comes

All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate one does not know. Everything that confronts them is vanity,[a] since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,[b] to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath.(A) This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover, the hearts of humans are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 9.2 Syr Compare Gk: Heb Everything that confronts them is everything
  2. 9.2 Gk Syr Vg: Heb lacks and the evil

14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people who are treated according to the conduct of the wicked and wicked people who are treated according to the conduct of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.(A)

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“How you have helped one who has no power!
    How you have assisted the arm that has no strength!(A)
How you have counseled one who has no wisdom
    and given much good advice!
With whose help have you uttered words,
    and whose spirit has come forth from you?

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28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
    Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’(A)
29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
    and do you not accept their testimony,
30 that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity
    and are rescued in the day of wrath?(B)

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Bear with me, and I will speak;
    then after I have spoken, mock on.(A)

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“How long will you torment me
    and break me in pieces with words?
These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
    are you not ashamed to wrong me?

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Surely there are mockers around me,
    and my eye dwells on their provocation.(A)

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Have windy words no limit?
    Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?(A)

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As for you, you whitewash with lies;
    all of you are worthless physicians.(A)
If you would only keep silent,
    that would be your wisdom!(B)
Hear now my reasoning,
    and listen to the pleadings of my lips.
Will you speak falsely for God
    and speak deceitfully for him?
Will you show partiality toward him;
    will you plead the case for God?
Will it be well with you when he searches you out?
    Or can you deceive him as one person deceives another?(C)

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25 How forceful are honest words!
    But your reproof, what does it reprove?(A)
26 Do you think that you can reprove words,
    as if the speech of the desperate were wind?(B)
27 You would even cast lots over the orphan
    and bargain over your friend.(C)

28 “But now, be pleased to look at me,
    for I will not lie to your face.(D)
29 Turn, I pray; let no wrong be done.
    Turn now; my vindication is at stake.

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