38 O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

² For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

³ There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

⁴ For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

⁵ My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

⁶ I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

⁷ For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.

⁸ I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

⁹ Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.

¹⁰ My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.

¹¹ My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

¹² They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.

¹³ But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

¹⁴ Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

¹⁵ For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

¹⁶ For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.

¹⁷ For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.

¹⁸ For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.

¹⁹ But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

²⁰ They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.

²¹ Forsake me not, O Lord: O my God, be not far from me.

²² Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.

39 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

² I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.

³ My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

⁴ Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.

⁵ Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

⁶ Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

⁷ And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.

⁹ I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

¹⁰ Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

¹¹ When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

¹² Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

¹³ O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

40 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

² He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

³ And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

⁴ Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

⁵ Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

⁶ Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

⁷ Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

⁸ I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

⁹ I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.

¹⁰ I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

¹¹ Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

¹² For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.

¹³ Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.

¹⁴ Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.

¹⁵ Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

¹⁶ Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.

¹⁷ But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

23 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:

² And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

³ Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

⁴ Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

⁵ Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

⁶ Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:

⁷ For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

⁸ The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

⁹ Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

¹⁰ Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹ For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

¹² Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³ Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

¹⁵ My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.

¹⁶ Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.

¹⁸ For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.

²⁰ Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:

²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

²² Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

²³ Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

²⁵ Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.

²⁶ My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

²⁷ For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸ She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

²⁹ Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

³⁰ They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

³¹ Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

³² At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

³³ Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

³⁴ Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.

³⁵ They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.