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1“O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, the soul in anguish and the wearied spirit cry out to you.
2Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned before you.
3For you are enthroned forever, and we are perishing forever.[#Ps 29.10; Lam 5.19]
4O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hear now the prayer of those of Israel who have died and of the children of those who sinned before you, who did not heed the voice of the Lord their God, so that calamities have clung to us.[#Bar 1.20; 2.2]
5Do not remember the iniquities of our ancestors, but in this crisis remember your power and your name.
6For you are the Lord our God, and it is you, O Lord, whom we will praise.
7For you have put the fear of you in our hearts so that we would call upon your name, and we will praise you in our exile, for we have put away from our hearts all the iniquity of our ancestors who sinned against you.[#Deut 30.1; Bar 2.30]
8See, we are today in our exile where you have scattered us, to be reproached and cursed and punished for all the iniquities of our ancestors, who forsook the Lord our God.”[#Bar 2.4]
9Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life;
give ear and learn wisdom!
10Why is it, O Israel, why is it that you are in the land of your enemies,
that you are growing old in a foreign land,
11that you are defiled with the dead,[#v 19 ; Ps 28.1; 88.4; 143.7]
that you are counted among those in Hades?
12You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.[#Jer 2.13]
13If you had walked in the way of God,[#Isa 48.18]
you would be living in peace forever.
14Learn where there is wisdom,[#Prov 3.2]
where there is strength,
where there is understanding,
so that you may at the same time discern
where there is length of days and life,
where there is light for the eyes and peace.
15Who has found her place,[#Job 28.12, 20]
and who has entered her storehouses?
16Where are the rulers of the nations[#Jer 27.6]
and those who lorded it over the animals on earth;
17those who made sport of the birds of the air[#Job 41.5]
and who hoarded up silver and gold
in which people trust,
and there is no end to their getting;
18those who schemed to get silver and were anxious,
but there is no trace of their works?
19They have vanished and gone down to Hades,[#v 11 ; Ps 28.1; 88.4; 143.7]
and others have arisen in their place.
20Younger people have seen the light of day[#vv 27, 37]
and have lived upon the earth,
but they have not learned the way to knowledge,
nor understood her paths,
nor laid hold of her.
21Their descendants have strayed far from their way.[#3.21 Gk: Syr her]
22She has not been heard of in Canaan[#Jer 49.7]
or seen in Teman;
23the descendants of Hagar, who seek for understanding on the earth,[#1 Chr 5.10; Ps 83.6; Jer 49.7]
the merchants of Merran and Teman,
the storytellers and the seekers for understanding,
have not learned the way to wisdom
or given thought to her paths.
24O Israel, how great is the house of God,
how vast the territory that he possesses!
25It is great and has no bounds;
it is high and immeasurable.
26The giants were born there, who were famous of old,[#Wis 14.6]
great in stature, expert in war.
27God did not choose them[#Jer 49.7]
or give them the way to knowledge,
28so they perished because they had no wisdom;
they perished through their folly.
29Who has gone up into heaven and taken her[#Deut 30.12, 13; Sir 24.4; Rom 10.6, 7]
and brought her down from the clouds?
30Who has gone over the sea and found her[#Job 28.15–19; Wis 7.9]
and will buy her for pure gold?
31No one knows the way to her
or is concerned about the path to her.
32But the one who knows all things knows her;[#Job 28.23]
he found her by his understanding.
The one who prepared the earth for all time
filled it with four-footed creatures;
33the one who sends forth the light and it goes,
he called it, and it obeyed him, trembling;
34the stars shone in their watches and were glad;
35he called them, and they said, “Here we are!”[#Ps 147.4; Isa 40.26; Sir 43.10]
They shone with gladness for him who made them.
36This is our God;
no other can be compared to him.
37He found the whole way to knowledge[#Job 28.23; Ps 147.19; Sir 24.8]
and gave her to his servant Jacob
and to Israel, whom he loved.
38Afterward she appeared on earth[#Prov 8.31]
and lived with humankind.