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 ^(A)strengthened the weak hands.
⁴ Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
    and you have ^(B)made firm the feeble knees.
⁵ But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
    it touches you, and you are dismayed.
^6 (C)Is not your fear of God^[a] your ^(D)confidence,
    and the integrity of your ways your hope?
⁷ “Remember: ^(E)who that was innocent ever perished?
    Or where were the upright cut off?

⁸ “As for me, I would seek God,
    and to God would I commit my cause,
⁹ who ^(A)does great things and ^(B)unsearchable,
    ^(C)marvellous things without number:
¹⁰ he gives ^(D)rain on the earth
    and sends waters on the fields;
¹¹ he ^(E)sets on high those who are lowly,
    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
¹² He ^(F)frustrates the devices of the crafty,
    so that their hands achieve no success.
¹³ He ^(G)catches 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 ^(H)grope at noonday as in the night.
¹⁵ But he ^(I)saves the needy from the sword of their mouth
    and from the hand of the mighty.
¹⁶ So the poor have hope,
    and ^(J)injustice shuts her mouth.
¹⁷ “Behold, ^(K)blessed is the one whom God reproves;
    therefore ^(L)despise not the discipline of the ^(M)Almighty.
¹⁸ For he wounds, but he ^(N)binds up;
    he ^(O)shatters, but his hands heal.
¹⁹ He will ^(P)deliver you from six troubles;
    in seven no ^(Q)evil^[a] shall touch you.
^20 (R)In famine he will redeem you from death,
    and in war from the power of the sword.
²¹ You shall be ^(S)hidden 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 ^(T)the 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 ^(U)tent is at peace,
    and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
²⁵ You shall know also that your ^(V)offspring shall be many,
    and your descendants as ^(W)the grass of the earth.
²⁶ You shall come to your grave in ^(X)ripe old age,
    like a sheaf gathered up in its season.
²⁷ Behold, this we have ^(Y)searched out; it is true.
    Hear, and know it for your good.”^[b]