1. “Cry for help, but will anyone answer you?Which of the angels will help you?
2. Surely resentment destroys the fool,and jealousy kills the simple.
3. I have seen that fools may be successful for the moment,but then comes sudden disaster.
4. Their children are abandoned far from help;they are crushed in court with no one to defend them.
5. The hungry devour their harvest,even when it is guarded by brambles.The thirsty pant after their wealth.
6. But evil does not spring from the soil,and trouble does not sprout from the earth.
7. People are born for troubleas readily as sparks fly up from a fire.
8. “If I were you, I would go to Godand present my case to him.
9. He does great things too marvelous to understand.He performs countless miracles.
10. He gives rain for the earthand water for the fields.
11. He gives prosperity to the poorand protects those who suffer.
12. He frustrates the plans of schemersso the work of their hands will not succeed.
13. He traps the wise in their own clevernessso their cunning schemes are thwarted.
14. They find it is dark in the daytime,and they grope at noon as if it were night.
15. He rescues the poor from the cutting words of the strong,and rescues them from the clutches of the powerful.
16. And so at last the poor have hope,and the snapping jaws of the wicked are shut.
17. “But consider the joy of those corrected by God!Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin.
18. For though he wounds, he also bandages.He strikes, but his hands also heal.