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[1]CALL now, I pray you; is there any one to answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn?
[2]For anger kills the foolish man, and enmity slays the silly one.
[3]I have seen the wicked prosper; but his habitation is suddenly destroyed.
[4]His children are far from salvation, and they are humiliated at the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.
[5]His harvest the hungry eat up; and they shall pour out water to the thirsty, and the thirsty devour their substance
[6]For falsehood does not come forth from the dust, nor does iniquity spring out of the ground;
[7]For man is born for trouble, as sure as the wild birds fly.
[8]But as for me. I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause,
[9]Who has done great things without limit; and marvellous things without number.
[10]Who gives rain upon the earth, and sends water upon the streets;
[11]To set up on high those that are lowly; and the meek shall be exalted by salvation.
[12]He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot wisely perform their enterprise.
[13]He takes the wise in their subtlety; and the counsel of the crafty is frustrated.
[14]They handle things in the daytime as though they were in darkness, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
[15]But he saves their lives from the sword, and the poor from the hand of the mighty.
[16]So there shall be hope for the poor, but the wicked shall shut his mouth
[17]Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; and he who does not despise the chastening of the Almighty;
[18]For it is he who wounds, and binds up; he smites, and his hands heal.
[19]He shall deliver you in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch you.
[20]In famine he shall deliver you from death; and in war from the power of the sword.
[21]You shall be protected from the scourge of the tongue; and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes.
[22]At plunder and famine you shall laugh; and you shall not fear the wild beasts.
[23]For you shall be in league with the stones of the field; and the wild beasts shall surrender to you.
[24]You shall know that your tabernacle shall be in peace; and you shall return to your habitation, and shall not sin.
[25]You shall know also that your descendants shall be many, and your offspring like the grass of the earth.
[26]You shall come to your grave gently, like a shock of grain in its season.
[27]Lo this thing we have searched, and it is so; we have heard it; and you know it for your good
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