¹“Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? ²For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple. ³I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation. ⁴His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them, ⁵whose harvest the hungry eat up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance. ⁶For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground; ⁷but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. ⁸“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God, ⁹who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number; ¹⁰who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields; ¹¹so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety. ¹²He frustrates the plans of the crafty, so that their hands can’t perform their enterprise. ¹³He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong. ¹⁴They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night. ¹⁵But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty. ¹⁶So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth. ¹⁷“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. ¹⁸For he wounds and 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; in war, from the power of the sword. ²¹You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes. ²²You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth. ²³For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you. ²⁴You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing. ²⁵You will know also that your offspring will be great, your offspring as the grass of the earth. ²⁶You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season. ²⁷Behold, we have researched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.”