Chapter 5

  'Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?  

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  For resentment kills the foolish man, And jealousy kills the simple.  

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  I have seen the foolish taking root, But suddenly I cursed his habitation.  

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  His children are far from safety, They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,  

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  Whose harvest the hungry eats up, Takes it even out of the thorns; The snare gapes for their substance.  

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  For affliction doesn't come forth from the dust, Neither does trouble spring out of the ground;  

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  But man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.  

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  'But as for me, I would seek God, To God would I commit my cause;  

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  Who does great things that can't be fathomed, Marvelous things without number;  

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  Who gives rain on the earth, And sends waters on the fields;  

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  So that he sets up on high those who are low, Those who mourn are exalted to safety.  

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  He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands can't perform their enterprise.  

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  He takes the wise in their own craftiness; The counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.  

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  They meet with darkness in the day-time, And grope at noonday as in the night.  

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  But he saves from the sword of their mouth, Even the needy from the hand of the mighty.  

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  So the poor has hope, And injustice shuts her mouth.  

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  'Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.  

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  For he wounds, and binds up; He injures, and his hands make whole.  

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  He will deliver you in six troubles; Yes, in seven there shall no evil touch you.  

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  In famine he will redeem you from death; In war, from the power of the sword.  

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  You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, Neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.  

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  At destruction and dearth you shall laugh, Neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth.  

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  For you shall be in league with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you.  

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  You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing.  

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  You shall know also that your seed shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth.  

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  You shall come to your grave in a full age, Like a shock of grain comes in its season.  

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  Look this, we have searched it, so it is; Hear it, and know it for your good.'  

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