⁴For they have no pangs;
their bodies are sound and sleek.
⁵They are not in trouble as other men are;
they are not stricken like other men.
⁶Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
⁷Their eyes swell out with fatness,
their hearts overflow with follies.
⁸They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
⁹They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.

¹⁰Therefore the people turn and praise them;
and find no fault in them.
¹¹And they say, "How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?"
¹²Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
¹³All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴For all the day long I have been stricken,
and chastened every morning.

¹⁵If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
I would have been untrue to the generation of your children.
¹⁶But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
¹⁷until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I perceived their end.
¹⁸Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
¹⁹How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
²⁰They are like a dream when one awakes,
on awaking you despise their phantoms.

²¹When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
²²I was stupid and ignorant,
I was like a beast toward you.
²³Nevertheless I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
²⁴You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
²⁵Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides you.
²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

²⁷For lo, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to those who are false to you.
²⁸But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made Yahweh GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.