1Call now, if there is anyone who will answer you. To which of the holy ones will you turn?
2For anger kills the foolish man, and envy slays the simple one.
3I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his home.
4His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to rescue them.
5The hungry eat up his harvest, and take it even out of the thorns, and the robber swallows up their wealth.
6Yet suffering does not come out of the dust, and trouble does not spring up out of the ground.
7But man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
8I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause.
9He does great things that cannot be searched out, and wonderful things without number.
10He gives rain on the earth, and sends water on the fields.
11He sets up on high those who are low, so that those who mourn are lifted up to safety.
12He ruins the plans of the crafty, so that their hands cannot carry out what they set out to do.
13He catches the wise in their own cunning, and the plan of the stubborn is swept away.
14They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noon as if it were night.
15But he saves the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.
16So the poor have hope, and evil shuts her mouth.
17Look, happy is the man whom God corrects. So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
18For he wounds, and he 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, and in war from the power of the sword.
21You will be hidden from the whip of the tongue, and you will not be afraid of destruction when it comes.
22At destruction and famine you will laugh, and you will not be afraid of the wild animals of the earth.
23For you will be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.
24You will know that your tent is at peace. You will look over your home, and miss nothing.
25You will know also that your children will be many, and your offspring like the grass of the earth.
26You will come to your grave in full old age, like a sheaf of grain gathered in its season.
27Look, we have searched this out, and so it is. Hear it, and know it for your own good.