For provocation slayeth the perverse, And envy putteth to death the simple,

I -- I have seen the perverse taking root, And I mark his habitation straightway,

He took the wise in their craftiness, and the counsel of the perverse was headlong.

Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?

If I justified myself, mine own mouth would condemn me; were I perfect, he would prove me perverse.

God shutteth me up unto the perverse, And to the hands of the wicked turneth me over.

Only these are tabernacles of the perverse, And this the place God hath not known.

In the fulness of his sufficiency he is straitened. Every perverse hand doth meet him.

As the wicked is my enemy, And my withstander as the perverse.

And I break the jaw-teeth of the perverse, And from his teeth I cast away prey.

Is not calamity to the perverse? And strangeness to workers of iniquity?

Wherefore, ye men of mind, hearken unto me, - Far be it, that, GOD, should be lawless, or, the Almighty, be perverse!

For, unto GOD, hath one ever said - I have borne punishment, I will not be perverse;