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WHAT GOD DOES TO HUMAN SEVERAL...
“I am young in years,
and you are old;
that is why I was fearful,
not daring to tell you what I know.
7 I thought, ‘Age should speak;
advanced years should teach wisdom.’
8 But it is the spiritb in a man,
the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.
9 It is not only the oldc who are wise,
not only the aged who understand what is right.
For I am full of words,
and the spirit within me compels me;
19 inside I am like bottled-up wine,
like new wineskins ready to burst.
20 I must speak and find relief;
I must open my lips and reply.
21 I will show partiality to no one,
nor will I flatter any man;
22 for if I were skilled in flattery,
my Maker would soon take me away.
But I tell you, in this you are not right,
for God is greater than man.
13Why do you complain to him
that he answers none of man’s wordsa?
14For God does speak—now one way, now another—
though man may not perceive it.
15In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men
as they slumber in their beds,
16he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
17to turn man from wrongdoing
and keep him from pride,
18to preserve his soul from the pit,b
his life from perishing by the sword.c
19Or a man may be chastened on a bed of pain
with constant distress in his bones,
20so that his very being finds food repulsive
and his soul loathes the choicest meal.
21His flesh wastes away to nothing,
and his bones, once hidden, now stick out.
22His soul draws near to the pit,d
and his life to the messengers of death.e
23“Yet if there is an angel on his side
as a mediator, one out of a thousand,
to tell a man what is right for him,
24to be gracious to him and say,
‘Spare him from going down to the pitf;
I have found a ransom for him’—
25then his flesh is renewed like a child’s;
it is restored as in the days of his youth.
26He prays to God and finds favor with him,
he sees God’s face and shouts for joy;
he is restored by God to his righteous state.
27Then he comes to men and says,
‘I sinned, and perverted what was right,
but I did not get what I deserved.
28He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit,g
and I will live to enjoy the light.’
29“God does all these things to a man—
twice, even three times—
30to turn back his soul from the pit,h
that the light of life may shine on him.
