1“Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?

To which of the holy ones will you turn?*

2Surely vexation kills the fool,

and jealousy slays the simple.*

3I have seen fools taking root,

but suddenly I cursed their dwelling.*

4Their children are far from safety,

they are crushed in the gate,

and there is no one to deliver them.*

5The hungry eat their harvest,

and they take it even out of the thorns,x

and the thirstyy pant after their wealth.*

6For misery does not come from the earth,

nor does trouble sprout from the ground,

7but humans are born to trouble

just as sparksz fly upward.*

8“As for me, I would seek God,

and to God I would commit my cause.*

9He does great things and unsearchable,

marvelous things without number.*

10He gives rain on the earth

and sends waters on the fields;*

11he sets on high those who are lowly,

and those who mourn are lifted to safety.*

12He frustrates the devices of the crafty,

so that their hands achieve no success.*

13He takes the wise in their own craftiness,

and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

14They meet with darkness in the daytime

and grope at noonday as in the night.*

15But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,

from the hand of the mighty.*

16So the poor have hope,

and injustice shuts its mouth.*

17“How happy is the one whom God reproves;

therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.a^,*

18For he wounds, but he binds up;

he strikes, but his hands heal.*

19He will deliver you from six troubles;

in seven no harm shall touch you.*

20In famine he will redeem you from death

and in war from the power of the sword.*

21You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue

and shall not fear destruction when it comes.*

22At destruction and famine you shall laugh

and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth.*

23For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,

and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.*

24You shall know that your tent is safe;

you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.*

25You shall know that your descendants will be many

and your offspring like the grass of the earth.*

26You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,

as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.*

27See, we have searched this out; it is true.

Hear, and know it for yourself.”