¹⁷ “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
    How often does calamity come upon them?
    How often does God^[c] distribute pains in his anger?
¹⁸ How often are they like straw before the wind,
    and like chaff that the storm carries away?
¹⁹ You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’
    Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it.
²⁰ Let their own eyes see their destruction,
    and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.^[d]
21 For what do they care for their household after them,
    when the number of their months is cut off?
²² Will any teach God knowledge,
    seeing that he judges those that are on high?
²³ One dies in full prosperity,
    being wholly at ease and secure,
²⁴ his loins full of milk
    and the marrow of his bones moist.
²⁵ Another dies in bitterness of soul,
    never having tasted of good.
²⁶ They lie down alike in the dust,
    and the worms cover them.

²⁷ “Oh, I know your thoughts,
    and your schemes to wrong me.
²⁸ For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
    Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
²⁹ Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
    and do you not accept their testimony,
³⁰ that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity,
    and are rescued in the day of wrath?
³¹ Who declares their way to their face,
    and who repays them for what they have done?
³² When they are carried to the grave,
    a watch is kept over their tomb.
³³ The clods of the valley are sweet to them;
    everyone will follow after,
    and those who went before are innumerable.
³⁴ How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
    There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

¹² “Is not God high in the heavens?
    See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
¹³ Therefore you say, ‘What does God know?
    Can he judge through the deep darkness?
¹⁴ Thick clouds enwrap him, so that he does not see,
    and he walks on the dome of heaven.’
¹⁵ Will you keep to the old way
    that the wicked have trod?
¹⁶ They were snatched away before their time;
    their foundation was washed away by a flood.
¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Leave us alone,’
    and ‘What can the Almighty^[g] do to us?’^[h]
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things—
    but the plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.
¹⁹ The righteous see it and are glad;
    the innocent laugh them to scorn,
²⁰ saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,
    and what they left, the fire has consumed.’

²¹ “Agree with God,^[i] and be at peace;
    in this way good will come to you.
²² Receive instruction from his mouth,
    and lay up his words in your heart.
²³ If you return to the Almighty,^[j] you will be restored,
    if you remove unrighteousness from your tents,
²⁴ if you treat gold like dust,
    and gold of Ophir like the stones of the torrent-bed,
²⁵ and if the Almighty^[k] is your gold
    and your precious silver,
²⁶ then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,^[l]
    and lift up your face to God.
²⁷ You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
    and you will pay your vows.
²⁸ You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
    and light will shine on your ways.
²⁹ When others are humiliated, you say it is pride;
    for he saves the humble.
³⁰ He will deliver even those who are guilty;
    they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”^[m]

⁸ “If I go forward, he is not there;
    or backward, I cannot perceive him;
⁹ on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him;
    I turn^[p] to the right, but I cannot see him.
¹⁰ But he knows the way that I take;
    when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold.
¹¹ My foot has held fast to his steps;
    I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
¹² I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;
    I have treasured in^[q] my bosom the words of his mouth.
¹³ But he stands alone and who can dissuade him?
    What he desires, that he does.
¹⁴ For he will complete what he appoints for me;
    and many such things are in his mind.
¹⁵ Therefore I am terrified at his presence;
    when I consider, I am in dread of him.
¹⁶ God has made my heart faint;
    the Almighty^[r] has terrified me;
¹⁷ If only I could vanish in darkness,
    and thick darkness would cover my face!^[s]

⁹ “There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast,
    and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.
¹⁰ They go about naked, without clothing;
    though hungry, they carry the sheaves;
¹¹ between their terraces^[v] they press out oil;
    they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.
¹² From the city the dying groan,
    and the throat of the wounded cries for help;
    yet God pays no attention to their prayer.

¹³ “There are those who rebel against the light,
    who are not acquainted with its ways,
    and do not stay in its paths.
¹⁴ The murderer rises at dusk
    to kill the poor and needy,
    and in the night is like a thief.
¹⁵ The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,
    saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
    and he disguises his face.
¹⁶ In the dark they dig through houses;
    by day they shut themselves up;
    they do not know the light.
¹⁷ For deep darkness is morning to all of them;
    for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

¹⁸ “Swift are they on the face of the waters;
    their portion in the land is cursed;
    no treader turns toward their vineyards.
¹⁹ Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;
    so does Sheol those who have sinned.
²⁰ The womb forgets them;
    the worm finds them sweet;
they are no longer remembered;
    so wickedness is broken like a tree.

²¹ “They harm^[w] the childless woman,
    and do no good to the widow.
²² Yet God^[x] prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
    they rise up when they despair of life.
²³ He gives them security, and they are supported;
    his eyes are upon their ways.
²⁴ They are exalted a little while, and then are gone;
    they wither and fade like the mallow;^[y]
    they are cut off like the heads of grain.
²⁵ If it is not so, who will prove me a liar,
    and show that there is nothing in what I say?”