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 forth from 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 devices 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 shall touch you. |
20 | In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword. |
21 | You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes. |
22 | At destruction and famine you shall laugh, neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth. |
23 | For you shall be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you. |
24 | You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing. |
25 | You shall know also that your seed shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth. |
26 | You shall come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season. |
27 | Look this, we have searched it, so it is. Hear it, and know it for your good." |