¹“Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?

To which of the holy ones will you turn?

²Surely vexation kills the fool,

and jealousy slays the simple.

³I have seen the fool taking root,

but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.

⁴His children are far from safety;

they are crushed in the gate,

and there is no one to deliver them.

⁵The hungry eat his harvest,

and he takes it even out of thorns,1

and the thirsty pant2 after his3 wealth.

⁶For affliction does not come from the dust,

nor does trouble sprout from the ground,

⁷but man is born to trouble

as the sparks fly upward.

⁸“As for me, I would seek God,

and to God would I commit my cause,

⁹who does great things and unsearchable,

marvelous things without number:

¹⁰he gives rain on the earth

and sends waters on the fields;

¹¹he sets on high those who are lowly,

and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the devices of the crafty,

so that their hands achieve no success.

¹³He catches the wise in their own craftiness,

and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the daytime

and grope at noonday as in the night.

¹⁵But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth

and from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the poor have hope,

and injustice shuts her mouth.

¹⁷“Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;

therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds, but he binds up;

he shatters, but his hands heal.

¹⁹He will deliver you from six troubles;

in seven no evil4 shall touch you.

²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death,

and in war from the power of the sword.

²¹You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue,

and shall not fear destruction when it comes.

²²At destruction and famine you shall laugh,

and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.

²³For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,

and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.

²⁴You shall know that your tent is at peace,

and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

²⁵You shall know also that your offspring shall be many,

and your descendants as the grass of the earth.

²⁶You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,

like a sheaf gathered up in its season.

²⁷Behold, this we have searched out; it is true.

Hear, and know it for your good.”5