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10A wise magistrate educates his people,
   and the rule of an intelligent person is well ordered.
² As the people’s judge is, so are his officials;
   as the ruler of the city is, so are all its inhabitants.
³ An undisciplined king ruins his people,
   but a city becomes fit to live in through the understanding of its rulers.
⁴ The government of the earth is in the hand of the Lord,
   and over it he will raise up the right leader for the time.
⁵ Human success is in the hand of the Lord,
   and it is he who confers honour upon the lawgiver.^*

The Sin of Pride

⁶ Do not get angry with your neighbour for every injury,
   and do not resort to acts of insolence.
⁷ Arrogance is hateful to the Lord and to mortals,
   and injustice is outrageous to both.
⁸ Sovereignty passes from nation to nation
   on account of injustice and insolence and wealth.^*
9 How can dust and ashes be proud?
   Even in life the human body decays.^*
10 A long illness baffles the physician;^*
   the king of today will die tomorrow.
¹¹ For when one is dead
   he inherits maggots and vermin^* and worms.
¹² The beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord;
   the heart has withdrawn from its Maker.
¹³ For the beginning of pride is sin,
   and the one who clings to it pours out abominations.
Therefore the Lord brings upon them unheard-of calamities,
   and destroys them completely.
¹⁴ The Lord overthrows the thrones of rulers,
   and enthrones the lowly in their place.
¹⁵ The Lord plucks up the roots of the nations,^*
   and plants the humble in their place.
¹⁶ The Lord lays waste the lands of the nations,
   and destroys them to the foundations of the earth.
¹⁷ He removes some of them and destroys them,
   and erases the memory of them from the earth.
¹⁸ Pride was not created for human beings,
   or violent anger for those born of women.

The Total Corruption of the People

7Woe is me! For I have become like one who,
   after the summer fruit has been gathered,
   after the vintage has been gleaned,
finds no cluster to eat;
   there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger.
² The faithful have disappeared from the land,
   and there is no one left who is upright;
they all lie in wait for blood,
   and they hunt each other with nets.
³ Their hands are skilled to do evil;
   the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
   thus they pervert justice.^*
4 The best of them is like a brier,
   the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of their^* sentinels, of their^* punishment, has come;
   now their confusion is at hand.
⁵ Put no trust in a friend,
   have no confidence in a loved one;
guard the doors of your mouth
   from her who lies in your embrace;
⁶ for the son treats the father with contempt,
   the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
   your enemies are members of your own household.
⁷ But as for me, I will look to the Lord,
   I will wait for the God of my salvation;
   my God will hear me.