1 Call now, is there any who will answer thee? And to which of the holy ones will thou turn?

2 For vexation kills the foolish man, and jealousy slays the silly one.

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

4 His sons are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,

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

6 For affliction does not come forth from the dust, nor 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 to God. And to God I would commit my cause,

9 who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number,

10 who gives rain upon the earth, and sends waters upon the fields,

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

12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

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

14 They meet with darkness in the daytime, 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 a poor man has hope, and iniquity stops her mouth.

17 Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise thou the chastening of the Almighty.

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

19 He will deliver thee in six troubles. Yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.

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

21 Thou shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue. Neither shall thou be afraid of destruction when it comes.

22 At destruction and dearth thou shall laugh, nor shall thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

23 For thou shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.

24 And thou shall know that thy tent is in peace, and thou shall visit thy fold, and shall miss nothing.

25 Thou shall know also that thy seed shall be great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.

26 Thou shall come to thy grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.

27 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is. Hear it, and know thou it for thy good.