Before you punished me, I used to go wrong, but now I obey your word.

LORD, how happy are those you instruct, the ones to whom you teach your law!

You give them rest from days of trouble until a pit is dug to trap the wicked.

But Israel's sins will be forgiven only when the stones of pagan altars are ground up like chalk, and no more incense altars or symbols of the goddess Asherah are left.

But we are judged and punished by the Lord, so that we shall not be condemned together with the world.

Our human fathers punished us for a short time, as it seemed right to them; but God does it for our own good, so that we may share his holiness.

When we are punished, it seems to us at the time something to make us sad, not glad. Later, however, those who have been disciplined by such punishment reap the peaceful reward of a righteous life.