[1] “Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
[2] For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.
[3] I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
[4] His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,
[5] whose harvest the hungry eats up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance.
[6] For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;
[7] but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
[8] “But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,
[9] who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;
[10] who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;
[11] so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.
[12] He frustrates the plans of the crafty, So that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.
[13] He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.
[14] They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.
[15] But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.
[16] So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
[17] “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
[18] For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole.
[19] He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you.
[20] In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.
[21] You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes.
[22] You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth.
[23] For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you.
[24] You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.
[25] You will know also that your offspring will be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth.
[26] You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.
[27] Look at this. We have searched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.”