⁹ For he has said, ‘It profits one nothing
    to take delight in God.’^(A)

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

¹⁴ They say to God, ‘Leave us alone!
    We do not desire to know your ways.^(A)
15 What is the Almighty,^[a] that we should serve him?
    And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’^(B)
16 Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement?^[b]
    The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.^(C)

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

⁴ Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.^(A)

¹⁰ Will they take delight in the Almighty?^[a]
    Will they call upon God at all times?^(A)

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

¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Leave us alone,’
    and ‘What can the Almighty^[a] do to us?’^[b]