Even if he slays me, I will hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face!

Moreover, this will become my deliverance, for no godless person would come before him.

Only in two things spare me, O God, and then I will not hide from your face:

Since man’s days are determined, the number of his months is under your control; you have set his limit and he cannot pass it.

“But there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.

He does not expect to escape from darkness; he is marked for the sword;

he lived in ruined towns and in houses where no one lives, where they are ready to crumble into heaps.

He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots and he will depart by the breath of God’s mouth.

“But if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I refrain from speaking – how much of it goes away?

his archers surround me. Without pity he pierces my kidneys and pours out my gall on the ground.

“But turn, all of you, and come now! I will not find a wise man among you.

His memory perishes from the earth, he has no name in the land.

‘Surely such is the residence of an evil man; and this is the place of one who has not known God.’”

whom I will see for myself, and whom my own eyes will behold, and not another. My heart grows faint within me.

Total darkness waits to receive his treasures; a fire which has not been kindled will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.

“Is not God on high in heaven? And see the lofty stars, how high they are!

Would he contend with me with great power? No, he would only pay attention to me.

From the city the dying groan, and the wounded cry out for help, but God charges no one with wrongdoing.

And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight, thinking, ‘No eye can see me,’ and covers his face with a mask.

In the dark the robber breaks into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they do not know the light.