⁹ He has even said, ‘Why waste time
    trying to please God?’

³ For you also ask, ‘What’s in it for me?
    What’s the use of living a righteous life?’

¹⁴ And yet they say to God, ‘Go away.
    We want no part of you and your ways.
¹⁵ Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him?
    What good will it do us to pray?’
¹⁶ (They think their prosperity is of their own doing,
    but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)

²² Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God.
    That’s why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
²³ When a plague^[a] sweeps through,
    he laughs at the death of the innocent.

⁴ Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you your heart’s desires.

¹⁰ Can they take delight in the Almighty?
    Can they call to God at any time?

³⁰ Even if I were to wash myself with soap
    and clean my hands with lye,
³¹ you would plunge me into a muddy ditch,
    and my own filthy clothing would hate me.

¹⁷ For they said to God, ‘Leave us alone!
    What can the Almighty do to us?’

³⁰ Evil people are spared in times of calamity
    and are allowed to escape disaster.