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

³ that you ask, ^(A)‘What advantage have I?
    How am I better off than if I had sinned?’

¹⁴ They say to God, ^(A)‘Depart from us!
    We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
^15 (B)What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
    And what ^(C)profit do we get if we pray to him?’
¹⁶ Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
    ^(D)The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

²² It is all one; therefore I say,
    ‘He ^(A)destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
²³ When ^(B)disaster brings sudden death,
    he mocks at the calamity^[a] of the innocent.

^4 (A)Delight yourself in the Lord,
    and he will ^(B)give you the desires of your heart.

¹⁰ Will he ^(A)take delight in the Almighty?
    Will he call upon God at all times?

³⁰ If I wash myself with snow
    and ^(A)cleanse my hands with lye,
³¹ yet you will plunge me into a pit,
    and my own clothes will ^(B)abhor me.

¹⁷ They said to God, ^(A)‘Depart from us,’
    and ^(B)‘What can the Almighty do to us?’^[a]