For the music director; a psalm of David. How blessed is the one who treats the poor properly! When trouble comes, the Lord delivers him.

All who hate me whisper insults about me to one another; they plan ways to harm me.

the one who delivers kings, and rescued David his servant from a deadly sword.

Do not plot evil against your neighbor when he dwells by you unsuspectingly.

Do not accuse anyone without legitimate cause, if he has not treated you wrongly.

Here is a misfortune on earth that I have seen: Wealth hoarded by its owner to his own misery.

Here is another misfortune that I have seen on earth, and it weighs heavily on people:

I have seen another misfortune on the earth: It is an error a ruler makes.

Banish emotional stress from your mind. and put away pain from your body; for youth and the prime of life are fleeting.

Syria has plotted with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah to bring about your demise.

The earth is broken in pieces, the earth is ripped to shreds, the earth shakes violently.

Not one of them will survive. I will bring disaster on those men from Anathoth who threatened you. A day of reckoning is coming for them.”

I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks. I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen. I used you to smash governors and leaders.”

“Suppose I were to send wild animals through the land and kill its children, leaving it desolate, without travelers due to the wild animals.

They were scattered because they had no shepherd, and they became food for every wild beast.

For this reason whoever is smart keeps quiet in such a time, for it is an evil time.

yet you hate what is good, and love what is evil. You flay my people’s skin and rip the flesh from their bones.

Again the Lord said to me, “Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd.

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, was taking care of the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.

Surely, no one knows his appointed time! Like fish that are caught in a deadly net, and like birds that are caught in a snare – just like them, all people are ensnared at an unfortunate time that falls upon them suddenly.