Family Prayer
in the Early Evening

² “How long will you say these things,
    and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
³ Does God pervert justice?
    Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
⁴ If your children have sinned against him,
    he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
⁵ If you will seek God
    and plead with the Almighty for mercy,
⁶ if you are pure and upright,
    surely then he will rouse himself for you
    and restore your rightful habitation.
⁷ And though your beginning was small,
    your latter days will be very great.

⁸ “For inquire, please, of bygone ages,
    and consider what the fathers have searched out.
⁹ For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
    for our days on earth are a shadow.
¹⁰ Will they not teach you and tell you
    and utter words out of their understanding?

¹¹ “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
    Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
¹² While yet in flower and not cut down,
    they wither before any other plant.
¹³ Such are the paths of all who forget God;
    the hope of the godless shall perish.
¹⁴ His confidence is severed,
    and his trust is a spider's web.
¹⁵ He leans against his house, but it does not stand;
    he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
¹⁶ He is a lush plant before the sun,
    and his shoots spread over his garden.
¹⁷ His roots entwine the stone heap;
    he looks upon a house of stones.
¹⁸ If he is destroyed from his place,
    then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
¹⁹ Behold, this is the joy of his way,
    and out of the soil others will spring.

²⁰ “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
    nor take the hand of evildoers.
²¹ He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
    and your lips with shouting.
²² Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
    and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”