⁷ The way of the righteous is level;
    thou^[a] dost make smooth the path of the righteous.
⁸ In the path of thy judgments,
    O Lord, we wait for thee;
thy memorial name
    is the desire of our soul.
⁹ My soul yearns for thee in the night,
    my spirit within me earnestly seeks thee.
For when thy judgments are in the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁶ O Lord, in distress they sought thee,
    they poured out a prayer^[a]
    when thy chastening was upon them.
¹⁷ Like a woman with child,
    who writhes and cries out in her pangs,
    when she is near her time,
so were we because of thee, O Lord;
¹⁸     we were with child, we writhed,
    we have as it were brought forth wind.
We have wrought no deliverance in the earth,
    and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
¹⁹ Thy dead shall live, their bodies^[b] shall rise.
    O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For thy dew is a dew of light,
    and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall.