² “Can a man be profitable to God?
    Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
³ Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous?
    Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?
⁴ Is it for your piety that he reproves you,
    that he enters with you into judgment?
⁵ Isn’t your wickedness great?
    Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
⁶ For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing,
    and stripped the naked of their clothing.
⁷ You haven’t given water to the weary to drink,
    and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
⁸ But as for the mighty man, he had the earth.
    The honorable man, he lived in it.
⁹ You have sent widows away empty,
    and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
¹⁰ Therefore snares are around you.
    Sudden fear troubles you,
¹¹ or darkness, so that you can not see,
    and floods of waters cover you.

¹² “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven?
    See the height of the stars, how high they are!
¹³ You say, ‘What does God know?
    Can he judge through the thick darkness?
¹⁴ Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see.
    He walks on the vault of the sky.’
¹⁵ Will you keep the old way,
    which wicked men have trodden,
¹⁶ who were snatched away before their time,
    whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
¹⁷ who said to God, ‘Depart from us!’
    and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’
¹⁸ Yet he filled their houses with good things,
    but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
¹⁹ The righteous see it, and are glad.
    The innocent ridicule them,
²⁰ saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off.
    The fire has consumed their remnant.’

²¹ “Acquaint yourself with him now, and be at peace.
    By it, good will come to you.
²² Please receive instruction from his mouth,
    and lay up his words in your heart.
²³ If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up,
    if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
²⁴ Lay your treasure in the dust,
    the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
²⁵ The Almighty will be your treasure,
    and precious silver to you.
²⁶ For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,
    and will lift up your face to God.
²⁷ You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you.
    You will pay your vows.
²⁸ You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you.
    Light will shine on your ways.
²⁹ When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’
    He will save the humble person.
³⁰ He will even deliver him who is not innocent.
    Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”