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For not from dust does mischief come,
    nor from the soil does trouble sprout.
Human beings beget mischief
    as sparks[a] fly upward.
In your place, I would appeal to God,
    and to God I would state my plea.

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Footnotes

  1. 5:7 Sparks: in Hebrew, “sons of resheph,” which the ancient versions took as the name of a bird. Resheph was an underworld deity of plague, but the word also means “flames” in Sg 8:6.

For hardship does not spring from the soil,
    nor does trouble sprout from the ground.(A)
Yet man is born to trouble(B)
    as surely as sparks fly upward.

“But if I were you, I would appeal to God;
    I would lay my cause before him.(C)

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