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^[c] do to us?’^[d]
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,^[e] 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,^[f] 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^[g] is your gold
    and your precious silver,
²⁶ then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,^[h]
    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.”^[i]