(A)For I was (B)envious of the arrogant
    when I saw the (C)prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death;
    their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
    they are not (D)stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is (E)their necklace;
    violence covers them as (F)a garment.
Their (G)eyes swell out through fatness;
    their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and (H)speak with malice;
    loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
    and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
    and find (I)no fault in them.[a]
11 And they say, (J)“How can God know?
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
    always at ease, they (K)increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I (L)kept my heart clean
    and (M)washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been (N)stricken
    and (O)rebuked (P)every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
    I would have betrayed (Q)the generation of your children.

16 But when I thought how to understand this,
    it seemed to me (R)a wearisome task,
17 until I went into (S)the sanctuary of God;
    then I discerned their (T)end.

18 Truly you set them in (U)slippery places;
    you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed (V)in a moment,
    swept away utterly by (W)terrors!
20 Like (X)a dream when one awakes,
    O Lord, when (Y)you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
    when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was (Z)brutish and ignorant;
    I was like (AA)a beast toward you.

23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you (AB)hold my right hand.
24 You (AC)guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will (AD)receive me to glory.
25 (AE)Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 73:10 Probable reading; Hebrew the waters of a full cup are drained by them

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