1. Call now, if there shall be anyone to answer thee; and if there shall be any of the saints for thee to look unto?
2. It is certain that wrath kills the foolish man, and envy consumes the covetous one.
3. I have seen the foolish taking root, but at the same time I cursed his habitation.
4. His sons are far from saving health, and they shall be crushed in the gate, and there shall be no one to deliver them.
5. The hungry shall eat up his harvest, and even take it out from among the thorns, and the thirsty shall drink up their substance.
6. For the iniquity does not come forth out of the dust; neither does chastisement spring up out of the ground;
7. yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
8. I would certainly seek God, and unto God would I commit my affairs;
9. who does great things that no one can understand, and marvels that have no explanation;
10. who gives rain upon the earth and sends waters abroad;
11. who sets up the humble on high, that those who mourn may be lifted up with saving health.
12. He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
13. He takes the wise in their own prudence, and the counsel of his adversaries is turned to folly.
14. They meet with darkness in the daytime and grope in the noonday as in the night.
15. But he saves the poor from the sword, from the mouth of the wicked, and from the hand of the violent.