1 Call out if you please. Will anyone answer you ? Which of the holy ones will you turn to?
2 For anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible.
3 I have seen a fool taking root, but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.
4 His children are far from safety. They are crushed at the city •gate, with no one to rescue them.
5 The hungry consume his harvest, even taking it out of the thorns. The thirsty pant for his children’s wealth.
6 For distress does not grow out of the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.
7 But mankind is born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
8 However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to Him.
9 He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
10 He gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields.
11 He sets the lowly on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.
12 He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.
13 He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly brought to an end.
14 They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.
15 He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful.
16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
17 See how happy the man is God corrects; so do not reject the discipline of the •Almighty.
18 For He crushes but also binds up; He strikes, but His hands also heal.
19 He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.
20 In famine He will redeem you from death, and in battle, from the power of the sword.
21 You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.
