Call now: is there any that will answer thee?{HR}And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn?
For grief killeth a fool,{HR}And jealousy slayeth the simple.
I have seen a fool taking root,{HR}And suddenly I cursed his habitation.
His sons are far from help,{HR}And are crushed in the gate without deliverance;
Whose harvest the hungry one devoureth,{HR}And taketh it off even out of a thorn-hedge,{HR}And the thirsty swalloweth up their wealth.
For evil goeth not forth of the dust,{HR}And trouble doth not sprout out of the ground;
But man is born to trouble,{HR}As the sparks of flame make high their flight.
For my part, then, I would turn to God (El),{HR}And to God (Elohim) would I commit my cause,
Who doeth great things and unsearchable,{HR}Marvelous things without number;
Who giveth rain on the face of the earth,{HR}And sendeth water on the face of the fields,
To set the low on high,{HR}And raise up the mourning to prosperity.
He breaketh to pieces the devices of the crafty,{HR}So that they can do nothing to purpose;
He taketh the wise in their craftiness,{HR}And the counsel of the cunning is overturned.
By day they run against darkness,{HR}And as in the night they grope at noon-day.
And he saveth the poor from the sword out of their mouth,{HR}And from the hand of the strong;
So there is hope to the poor,{HR}And iniquity shutteth her mouth.
Lo, happy the man whom God correcteth:{HR}Therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty.
For he woundeth, and bindeth up,{HR}He smiteth and his hands make whole.
In six troubles he will deliver thee,{HR}And in seven no evil shall befall thee.
In famine he hath redeemed thee from death,{HR}And in war from the hand of the sword.
In the scourge of the tongue thou art hidden,{HR}And fearest not destruction when it cometh;
At destruction and at famine thou shalt laugh,{HR}And thou shalt not be afraid before beasts of the earth.
For with the stones of the field is thy covenant,{HR}And the wild beasts of the field are at peace with thee.
And thou knowest that thy tabernacle [is] peace,{HR}And thou shalt oversee thy place and miss nothing.
And thou shalt know that thy seed [is] great,{HR}And thine offspring as the green herb of the earth.
Thou shalt go to the grave in a full age,{HR}As the heap of sheaves mounteth up in its season.
Lo, this we have searched out; so it [is];{HR}Hear it and mark [it] well for thyself.