¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
    who rule this people in Jerusalem.
¹⁵ Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death,
    and with Sheol we have an agreement;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
    it will not come to us;
for we have made lies our refuge,
    and in falsehood we have taken shelter’;
¹⁶ therefore thus says the Lord God,
See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone,
    a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation:
    ‘One who trusts will not panic.’
¹⁷ And I will make justice the line,
    and righteousness the plummet;
hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
    and waters will overwhelm the shelter.
¹⁸ Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
    and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
    you will be beaten down by it.
¹⁹ As often as it passes through, it will take you;
    for morning by morning it will pass through,
    by day and by night;
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
²⁰ For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it,
    and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in it.
²¹ For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim,
    he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon
to do his deed—strange is his deed!—
    and to work his work—alien is his work!
²² Now therefore do not scoff,
    or your bonds will be made stronger;
for I have heard a decree of destruction
    from the Lord God of hosts upon the whole land.

²⁰ The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
    according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.
²¹ For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
    and have not wickedly departed from my God.
²² For all his ordinances were before me,
    and his statutes I did not put away from me.
²³ I was blameless before him,
    and I kept myself from guilt.
²⁴ Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
    according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

²⁵ With the loyal you show yourself loyal;
    with the blameless you show yourself blameless;
²⁶ with the pure you show yourself pure;
    and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
²⁷ For you deliver a humble people,
    but the haughty eyes you bring down.
²⁸ It is you who light my lamp;
    the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.
²⁹ By you I can crush a troop,
    and by my God I can leap over a wall.
³⁰ This God—his way is perfect;
    the promise of the Lord proves true;
    he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

³¹ For who is God except the Lord?
    And who is a rock besides our God?—
³² the God who girded me with strength,
    and made my way safe.