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¹ Surely God is good to Israel,
to those pure of heart.
² But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled.
My steps had nearly slipped,
³ because I envied the boastful
when I saw the well-being^[b] of the wicked.
⁴ For there are no pains up to their death,
and their bodies are healthy.^[c]
5 They do not have ordinary trouble,^[d]
and they are not plagued as other people.^[e]
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
an outfit of violence covers them.
⁷ Their eye bulges from fat.^[f]
Imaginings overflow their heart.
⁸ They mock and speak maliciously of oppression;
they speak as though from on high.
⁹ They set their mouth against the heavens,
and their tongue roams the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore his people turn there,^[g]
and abundant waters are slurped up by them.
¹¹ And they say, "How does God know?"
and, "Does the Most High have knowledge?"
¹² See, these are the wicked,
and they increase wealth, ever carefree.
¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure,
and washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ And I have been plagued all day
and rebuked every morning.^[h]
15 If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
behold, I would have acted treacherously
against your children's generation.
¹⁶ When I thought about how to understand this,
it was troubling in my eyes
¹⁷ until I went into the sanctuary of God.
Then I understood their fate.
¹⁸ Surely you set them on slippery places.
You cause them to fall onto ruin.^[i]
19 How they become a desolation in a moment!
They come to a complete end by terrors.
²⁰ Like a dream upon awakening,
when you wake up, O Lord,
you will despise their fleeting form.^[j]
21 When my heart was embittered
and I felt stabbed in my kidneys,
²² then I was brutish and ignorant.
With you I was like the beasts.
²³ But I am continually with you;
you have hold of my right hand.
²⁴ You will guide me with your advice,
and afterward you will take me into honor.^[k]
25 Whom do I have in the heavens except you?
And with you I have no other desire on earth.
²⁶ My flesh and heart failed,
but God is the strength^[l] of my heart and my reward forever.
²⁷ For indeed, those distancing themselves from you will be ruined.
You destroy each who abandons you for harlotry.
²⁸ But as for me, the approach to God is for my good.
I have set the Lord Yahweh as my refuge,
in order to tell all your works.