12  Are you not ^hfrom everlasting,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

We shall not die.

O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O ⁱRock, have established them for reproof.

13  You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

and cannot look at wrong,

^jwhy do you idly look at traitors

and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

the man more righteous than he?

14  You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

like crawling things that have no ruler.

15  ^kHe¹ brings all of them up with a hook;

he drags them out with his net;

he gathers them in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and is glad.

16  Therefore he sacrifices to his net

and makes offerings to his dragnet;

for by them he lives in luxury,²

and his food is rich.

17  Is he then to keep on emptying his net

and mercilessly killing nations forever?

1  I will take my stand at my ^lwatchpost

and station myself on the tower,

and look out to see what he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint.