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16:1  Do not desire a multitude of worthless children, and do not rejoice in ungodly offspring.
16:2  If they multiply, do not rejoice in them, unless the fear of the Lord is in them.
16:3  Do not trust in their survival, or rely on their numbers; for one can be better than a thousand, and to die childless is better than to have ungodly children.
16:4  For through one intelligent person a city can be filled with people, but through a clan of outlaws it becomes desolate.
16:5  Many such things my eye has seen, and my ear has heard things more striking than these.
16:6  In an assembly of sinners a fire is kindled, and in a disobedient nation wrath blazes up.
16:7  He did not forgive the ancient giants who revolted in their might.
16:8  He did not spare the neighbours of Lot, whom he loathed on account of their arrogance.
16:9  He showed no pity on the doomed nation, on those dispossessed because of their sins;
16:10  or on the six hundred thousand foot-soldiers who assembled in their stubbornness.
16:11  Even if there were only one stiff-necked person, it would be a wonder if he remained unpunished. For mercy and wrath are with the Lord; he is mighty to forgive—but he also pours out wrath.
16:12  Great as is his mercy, so also is his chastisement; he judges a person according to his or her deeds.
16:13  The sinner will not escape with plunder, and the patience of the godly will not be frustrated.
16:14  He makes room for every act of mercy; everyone receives in accordance with his or her deeds.
16:17  Do not say, ‘I am hidden from the Lord, and who from on high has me in mind? Among so many people I am unknown, for what am I in a boundless creation?
16:18  Lo, heaven and the highest heaven, the abyss and the earth, tremble at his visitation!
16:19  The very mountains and the foundations of the earth quiver and quake when he looks upon them.
16:20  But no human mind can grasp this, and who can comprehend his ways?
16:21  Like a tempest that no one can see, so most of his works are concealed.
16:22  Who is to announce his acts of justice? Or who can await them? For his decree is far off.’
16:23  Such are the thoughts of one devoid of understanding; a senseless and misguided person thinks foolishly.
16:24  Listen to me, my child, and acquire knowledge, and pay close attention to my words.
16:25  I will impart discipline precisely and declare knowledge accurately.
16:26  When the Lord created his works from the beginning, and, in making them, determined their boundaries,
16:27  he arranged his works in an eternal order, and their dominion for all generations. They neither hunger nor grow weary, and they do not abandon their tasks.
16:28  They do not crowd one another, and they never disobey his word.
16:29  Then the Lord looked upon the earth, and filled it with his good things.
16:30  With all kinds of living beings he covered its surface, and into it they must return.