⁶ For affliction does not come from the dust,
    nor does trouble sprout from the ground,

⁷ I form light and create darkness;
    I make well-being and ^(A)create calamity;
    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

^6 (A)Is a trumpet blown in a city,
    and the people are not afraid?
^(B)Does disaster come to a city,
    unless the Lord has done it?

⁴ They utter ^(A)mere words;
    with empty^[a] oaths they make covenants;
so ^(B)judgment springs up like poisonous weeds
    ^(C)in the furrows of the field.

^38 (A)Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that good and bad come?

²⁹ When he is quiet, who can condemn?
    When he hides his face, who can behold him,
    whether it be a nation or a man?—

²⁷ had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
    lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
lest they should say, ^(A)“Our hand is triumphant,
    it was not the Lord who did all this.”’