2  “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?

Yet who can keep from speaking?

3  Behold, you have instructed many,

and you have ^astrengthened the weak hands.

4  Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,

and you have ^amade firm the feeble knees.

5  But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;

it touches you, and you are dismayed.

7  “Remember: ^dwho that was innocent ever perished?

Or where were the upright cut off?

8  As I have seen, those who ^eplow iniquity

and sow trouble reap the same.

9  By ^fthe breath of God they perish,

and by ^gthe blast of his anger they are consumed.

17  ⁿ‘Can mortal man be in the right before¹ God?

Can a man be pure before his Maker?

11  he ^esets on high those who are lowly,

and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

12  He ^ffrustrates the devices of the crafty,

so that their hands achieve no success.

13  He ^gcatches the wise in their own craftiness,

and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

14  They meet with darkness in the daytime

and ^hgrope at noonday as in the night.

15  But he ⁱsaves the needy from the sword of their mouth

and from the hand of the mighty.

16  So the poor have hope,

and ^jinjustice shuts her mouth.

19  He will ^pdeliver you from six troubles;

in seven no ^qevil¹ shall touch you.

20  ^rIn famine he will redeem you from death,

and in war from the power of the sword.

21  You shall be ^shidden from the lash of the tongue,

and shall not fear destruction when it comes.

22  At destruction and famine you shall laugh,

and shall not fear ^tthe beasts of the earth.

23  For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,

and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.

24  You shall know that your ^utent is at peace,

and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

25  You shall know also that your ^voffspring shall be many,

and your descendants as ^wthe grass of the earth.

26  You shall come to your grave in ^xripe old age,

like a sheaf gathered up in its season.

19  how much more those who dwell in houses of ^pclay,

whose foundation is in ^qthe dust,

who are crushed like^{1 r}the moth.

20  Between ^smorning and evening they are beaten to pieces;

they perish forever ^twithout anyone regarding it.

21  Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,

^udo they not die, and that without wisdom?’

3  ^wI have seen the fool taking root,

but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.

4  His children are ^xfar from safety;

they are crushed in ^ythe gate,

and there is no one to deliver them.

5  The hungry eat his harvest,

and he takes it even out of thorns,¹

and the thirsty pant² after his³ wealth.