³ Is it good to you that you should oppress, That you should despise the work of your hands, And smile on the counsel of the wicked?

⁸ But now, Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.

⁸ Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me; Your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don't forsake the works of your own hands.

¹⁵ You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire to the work of your hands.

¹⁹ Therefore let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator.

² He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

³ Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.

⁴ My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.

⁵ He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

⁶ He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.

⁷ He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.

⁸ Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.

⁹ He has walled up my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.

¹¹ He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.

¹² He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

¹³ He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins.

¹⁴ I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.

¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.

¹⁷ You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.

¹⁸ I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.

¹ Righteous are you, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet would I reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?

² You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

³ But you, Yahweh, know me; you see me, and try my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

³³ For Yahweh hears the needy, And doesn't despise his captive people.

⁸ Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?

² "Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it."

¹⁷ "But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.

¹⁸ Don't let riches entice you to wrath, Neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.

⁷ He doesn't withdraw his eyes from the righteous, But with kings on the throne, He sets them forever, and they are exalted.

⁸ If they are bound in fetters, And are taken in the cords of afflictions,

⁹ Then he shows them their work, And their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.

¹⁸ Who says to a king, 'Vile!' Or to nobles, 'Wicked!'

¹⁹ Who doesn't respect the persons of princes, Nor regards the rich more than the poor; For they all are the work of his hands.

⁵ For Job has said, 'I am righteous, God has taken away my right:

⁶ Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar; My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.'

⁷ What man is like Job, Who drinks scorn like water,

¹⁸ Yet he filled their houses with good things, But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁶ Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand: The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

²⁴ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of the judges of it. If not he, then who is it?

²² "It is all the same. Therefore I say, He destroys the blameless and the wicked.

²⁰ "Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.