1Do but call: is there one that will answer thee? and to whom of the saints wilt thou turn thyself?
2For vexation will prove death to a foolish man, and jealousy will slay the simple.
3I have myself seen the foolish taking root; but I suddenly held his habitation as accursed.
4His children are far from help, and men crush them in the gate, with no one to deliver them.
5[He it is] whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber snatcheth eagerly after their substance.
6For wrong doth not come forth out of the dust, neither doth trouble grow up out of the ground;
7But man is born unto trouble, as young birds take up their flight.
8I, however, would have besought God, and unto God would I have committed my cause;
9Who doth great things which are unsearchable, marvelous things till they are without number;
10Who giveth rain upon the surface of the earth, and sendeth out waters over the face of the fields;
11To set up the lowly on high, that those who mourn may rise high to happiness;
12[But] who frustrateth the plans of the crafty, so that their hands cannot execute their well-devised counsel;
13Who catcheth the wise in their own craftiness; and the advise of the perverse is hastened on headlong;
14By day they meet with darkness, and as though it were night they grope about in the noon of day;
15But who saveth from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty, the needy one:
16And so cometh to the indigent hope, and iniquity stoppeth her mouth.
17Behold, happy is the man whom God admonisheth: despise then not the correction of the Almighty.
18For he it is that woundeth, and bindeth up: he smiteth, and his hands do heal.
19In six distresses will he deliver thee; and in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
20In famine he redeemeth thee from death; and in war from the power of the sword.
21Against the scourge of the tongue shall thou he hidden; and thou needest not be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
22At destruction and famine canst thou laugh; and thou needest not have any fear of the beasts of the earth.
23For with the stones of the field shalt thou have thy covenant; and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
24And thou shalt know that there is peace in thy tent; and thou wilt look over thy habitation, and shalt miss nothing.
25And thou shalt know that thy seed is numerous, and thy offspring as the herbage of the earth.
26Thon wilt go in a ripe age unto the grave, as a shock of corn is carried home in its season.
27Behold this, we have searched it out, so it is: hear it, and do thou note it well for thyself.