1Call now, if there be any that will answer you; and to which of the holy ones will you turn?

2For wrath kills the foolish man, and envy slays the simple one.

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

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

5Whose harvest the hungry eats up, and takes it even out of the thorns, and the robber swallows up their wealth.

6For affliction comes not forth from the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;

7Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

8I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:

9Who does great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number:

10Who gives rain upon the earth, and sends waters upon the fields:

11To set up on high those that are low; that those who mourn may be lifted to safety.

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

13He takes the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the cunning is quickly ended.

14They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.

15But he saves the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.

16So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

17Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty:

18For he bruises, and binds up: he wounds, and his hands make whole.

19He shall deliver you in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch you.

20In famine he shall redeem you from death: and in war from the power of the sword.

21You shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.

22At destruction and famine you shall laugh: neither shall you be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

23For you shall be in covenant with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.

24And you shall know that your tabernacle shall be in peace; and you shall visit your habitation, and shall find nothing amiss.

25You shall know also that your descendants shall be many, and your offspring as the grass of the earth.

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

27Lo this, we have searched it out, so it is; hear it, and know you it for your good.