1Call now, if any will answer thee, and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn?
2Doubtless anger killeth the foolish, and envy slayeth the idiot.
3I have seen the foolish well rooted, and suddenly I cursed his habitation, saying,
4His children shall be far from salvation, and they shall be destroyed in the gate, and none shall deliver them.
5The hungry shall eat up his harvest: yea, they shall take it from among the thorns, and the thirsty shall drink up their substance.
6For misery cometh not forth of the dust, neither doeth affliction spring out of the earth.
7But man is born unto travail, as the sparks fly upward.
8But I would inquire at God, and turn my talk unto God:
9Which doeth great things, and unsearchable, and marvelous things without number.
10He giveth rain upon the earth, and poureth water upon the streets,
11And setteth up on high them that be low, that the sorrowful may be exalted to salvation.
12He scattereth the devices of the crafty: so that their hands cannot accomplish that which they do enterprise.
13He taketh the wise in their craftiness, and the counsel of the wicked is made foolish.
14They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noonday, as in the night.
15But he saveth the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the violent man,
16So that the poor hath his hope, but iniquity shall stop her mouth.
17Behold, blessed is the man whom God correcteth: therefore refuse not thou the chastising of the Almighty.
18For he maketh the wound, and bindeth it up: he smiteth, and his hands make whole.
19He shall deliver thee in six troubles, and in the seventh the evil shall not touch thee.
20In famine he shall deliver thee from death: and in battle from the power of the sword.
21Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue, and thou shalt not be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
22But thou shalt laugh at destruction and dearth, and shalt not be afraid of the beast of the earth.
23For the stones of the field shall be in league with thee, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
24And thou shalt know, that peace shall be in thy tabernacle, and thou shalt visit thine habitation, and shalt not sin.
25Thou shalt perceive also that thy seed shall be great, and thy posterity as the grass of the earth.
26Thou shalt go to thy grave in a full age, as a rick of corn cometh in due season into the barn.
27Lo, thus have we inquired of it, and so it is: hear this and know it for thyself.