¹ The righteous perishes, and no man lays [it] to heart: and merciful men [are] taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil [to come].

² He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, [each one] walking [in] his uprightness.

³ But come here, ye sons of the sorceress, generation of the adulterer and the whore.

⁴ Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom do ye make a wide mouth, [and] draw out the tongue? [Are] ye not rebellious sons, a lying seed of transgression,

⁵ inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks?

⁶ Among the smooth [stones] of the valley [is] thy portion; they, they [are] thy lot: even unto them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a present. Should I not avenge these things?

⁷ Upon the lofty and high mountain thou hast set thy bed: even there thou didst go up to offer sacrifice.

⁸ Behind the doors also and the posts thou hast set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered [thyself to another] than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed and made thee [a covenant] with them; thou didst loved their bed wherever thou didst see [it].

⁹ And thou didst go to the king with ointment and didst multiply thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase [thyself even] unto Sheol.

¹⁰ Thou became wearied in the multitude of thy ways; [yet] thou didst not say, There is no remedy: thou hast found that which thou wast searching for; therefore thou repented not.

¹¹ And of whom hast thou reverenced or feared? Why dost thou lie; that thou hast not remembered me, nor have I come to thy thought? Have I not held my peace even of old, and thou hast never feared me?

¹² I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.

¹³ When thou criest, let thy companions deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take [them]: but he that waits in me shall have the land by inheritance and shall possess the mountain of my holiness.

¹⁴ And shall say, Clear away, clear away, level the way, take away the stumblingblocks out of the way of my people.

¹⁵ For thus has said the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name [is] The Holy [One]; I dwell in the high place and in holiness and with him also [that is] of a contrite and humble spirit to cause the spirit of the humble to live and to cause the heart of the contrite ones to live.

¹⁶ For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for by me is the spirit covered by the body, and I have made the souls.

¹⁷ For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth and smote him: I hid [my face] and was wroth, and he went on rebelliously in the way of his heart.

¹⁸ I have seen his ways and will heal him: I will lead him also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.

¹⁹ I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to [him that is] far off and to [him that is] near, said the LORD; and healed him.

²⁰ But the wicked [are] like the sea in tempest, that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

²¹ [There is] no peace, saith my God, for the wicked.: