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[1]Call now, if any will answer thee, and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?
[2]Doubtless anger killeth the foolish, and envy slayeth the idiot.
[3]I have seen the foolish well rooted, and suddenly I cursed his habitation, saying,
[4]His children shall be far from salvation, and they shall be destroyed in the gate, and none shall deliver them.
[5]The hungry shall eat up his harvest: yea, they shall take it from among the thorns, and the thirsty shall drink up their substance.
[6]For misery cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth affliction spring out of the earth.
[7]But man is born unto travail, as the sparks fly upward.
[8]But I would inquire at God, and turn my talk unto God:
[9]Which doth great things and unsearchable , and marvelous things without number.
[10]He giveth rain upon the earth, and poureth water upon the streets,
[11]And setteth up on high them that be low, that the sorrowful may be exalted to salvation.
[12]He scattereth the devices of the crafty: so that their hands cannot accomplish that which they do enterprise.
[13]He taketh the wise in their craftiness, and the counsel of the wicked is made foolish.
[14]They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noonday, as in the night.
[15]But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the violent man,
[16]So that the poor hath his hope, but iniquity shall stop her mouth.
[17]Behold, blessed is the man whom God correcteth: therefore refuse not thou the chastising of the Almighty.
[18]For he maketh the wound, and bindeth it up: he smiteth, and his hands make whole.
[19]He shall deliver thee in six troubles, and in the seventh the evil shall not touch thee.
[20]In famine he shall deliver thee from death: and in battle from the power of the sword.
[21]Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue, and thou shalt not be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
[22]But thou shalt laugh at destruction and dearth, and shalt not be afraid of the beast of the earth.
[23]For the stones of the field shall be in league with thee, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
[24]And thou shalt know, that peace shall be in thy tabernacle, and thou shalt visit thine habitation, and shalt not sin.
[25]Thou shalt perceive also, that thy seed shall be great, and thy posterity as the grass of the earth.
[26]Thou shalt go to thy grave in a full age, as a rick of corn cometh in due season into the barn.
[27]Lo, thus have we inquired of it, and so it is: hear this and know it for thyself.
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