What We Can Learn from a Very Bad Sermon
5:1 “Call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
5:2 Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
5:3 I myself have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed.
5:4 His children are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
5:5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from among thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
5:6 For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground.
5:7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
5:8 “But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.
5:9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
5:10 He bestows rain on the earth; he sends water upon the countryside.
5:11 The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
5:12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.
5:13 He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away.
5:14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night.
5:15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.
5:16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
5:17 “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
5:18 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.
5:19 From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will befall you.
5:20 In famine he will ransom you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
5:21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes.
5:22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the beasts of the earth.
5:23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
5:24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.
5:25 You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
5:26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season.
5:27 “We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
