Family Prayer
in the Early Evening

² “Can a man be profitable to God?
    Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
³ Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right,
    or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
⁴ Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you
    and enters into judgment with you?
⁵ Is not your evil abundant?
    There is no end to your iniquities.
⁶ For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
    and stripped the naked of their clothing.
⁷ You have given no water to the weary to drink,
    and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
⁸ The man with power possessed the land,
    and the favored man lived in it.
⁹ You have sent widows away empty,
    and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
¹⁰ Therefore snares are all around you,
    and sudden terror overwhelms you,
¹¹ or darkness, so that you cannot see,
    and a flood of water covers you.

¹² “Is not God high in the heavens?
    See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
¹³ But you say, ‘What does God know?
    Can he judge through the deep darkness?
¹⁴ Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see,
    and he walks on the vault of heaven.’
¹⁵ Will you keep to the old way
    that wicked men have trod?
¹⁶ They were snatched away before their time;
    their foundation was washed away.
¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’
    and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’
¹⁸ Yet he filled their houses with good things—
    but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
¹⁹ The righteous see it and are glad;
    the innocent one mocks at them,
²⁰ saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,
    and what they left the fire has consumed.’

²¹ “Agree with God, and be at peace;
    thereby good will come to you.
²² Receive instruction from his mouth,
    and lay up his words in your heart.
²³ If you return to the Almighty you will be built up;
    if you remove injustice far from your tents,
²⁴ if you lay gold in the dust,
    and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,
²⁵ then the Almighty will be your gold
    and your precious silver.
²⁶ For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty
    and lift up your face to God.
²⁷ You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you,
    and you will pay your vows.
²⁸ You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
    and light will shine on your ways.
²⁹ For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;
    but he saves the lowly.
³⁰ He delivers even the one who is not innocent,
    who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”