1“Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

2For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.

3I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

4His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate.
Neither is there any to deliver them,

5whose harvest the hungry eat up, and take it even out of the thorns.
The snare gapes for their substance.

6For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;

7but 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,

9who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvellous things without number;

10who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;

11so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.

12He frustrates the plans of the crafty, so that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.

13He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

14They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.

15But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

16So 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.

18For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole.

19He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you.

20In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.

21You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes.

22You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth.

23For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you.

24You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.

25You will know also that your offspring ³will be great, your offspring as the grass of the earth.

26You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.

27Behold, we have researched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.”