1 Call now; is there any who will answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you 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 eats 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, 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 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 on the earth, And sends waters on 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 can't 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 the poor has hope, And iniquity stops her mouth.
17 Look, happy is [the] common man whom God corrects: Therefore don't despise the chastening of the Almighty.
18 For he makes sore, and binds up; He wounds, and his hands make whole.
19 He will deliver you in six troubles; Yes, in seven no evil will touch you.
20 In famine he will redeem you from death; And in war from the power of the sword.
21 You will be hid from the scourge of the tongue; Neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes.
22 At destruction and famine you will laugh; Neither will you be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
23 For you will be in league with the stones of the field; And the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.
24 And you will know that your tent is in peace; And you will visit your fold, and will miss nothing.
25 You will know also that your seed will be great, And your offspring as the grass of the earth.
26 You will come to your grave in a full age, Like a shock of grain comes in in its season.
27 See this, we have searched it, so it is; Hear it, and know it for your good.