⁹ For ^(A)he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing
That he should delight in God.’

³ For ^(A)you say,
‘What advantage will it be to You?
What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’

^14 (A)Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
^15 (B)Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And ^(C)what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’
¹⁶ Indeed ^[a]their prosperity is not in their hand;
^(D)The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

^14 (A)You have said,
‘It is useless to serve God;
What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance,
And that we have walked as mourners
Before the Lord of hosts?

²² It is all one thing;
Therefore I say, ^(A)‘He destroys the blameless and the wicked.’
²³ If the scourge slays suddenly,
He laughs at the plight of the innocent.