CHAPTER 5
1Call out, pray: will any answer you,
and to whom of the angels will you turn?
2For anger kills a fool,
and the simple, envy slays.
3 I have seen a fool striking root—
all at once his abode I saw cursed.
4His children are distant from rescue
and are crushed in the gate—none will save.
5Whose harvest the hungry eat
and from among thorns they take it away,
and the thirsty pant for their wealth.
6 For crime does not spring from the dust,
nor from the soil does wretchedness sprout.
7 But man is to wretchedness born
8 Yet I search for El
and to God I make my case,
9Who does great things without limit
wonders beyond all number,
10Who brings rain down on the earth
and sends water over the fields.
11Who raises the lowly on high—
the downcast are lifted in rescue.
12Thwarts the designs of the cunning,
and their hands do not perform wisely.
13He entraps the wise in their cunning,
and the crooked’s counsel proves hasty.
14 By day they encounter darkness,
as in night they go groping at noon.
15 He rescues the simple from the sword,
and from the hand of the strong, the impoverished,
16and the indigent then has hope,
and wickedness clamps its mouth shut.
17Why, happy the man whom God corrects.
Shaddai’s reproof do not spurn!
18 For He causes pain and binds the wound,
He deals blows but His hands will heal.
19 In six straits He will save you,
and in seven harm will not touch you.
20In famine He redeems you from death,
and in battle from the sword.
21 From the scourge of the tongue you are hidden,
and you shall fear not assault when it comes.
22At assault and starvation you laugh,
and the beast of the earth you fear not.
23With the stones of the field is your pact,
the beasts of the field leagued with you.
24 And you shall know that your tent is peaceful,
probe your home and find nothing amiss.
25And you shall know that your seed is abundant,
your offspring like the grass of the earth.
26You shall come to the grave in vigor,
as grain-shocks mount in their season.
27Look, this we have searched, it is so.