Job 15:17–35

¹⁷I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare; ¹⁸Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden; ¹⁹Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them. ²⁰All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent. ²¹The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him. ²²He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword. ²³He wandereth abroad for bread, —where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. ²⁴Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for the battle. ²⁵For he hath stretched out his hand against •God, and strengthened himself against the Almighty: ²⁶He runneth against him, with outstretched neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers; ²⁷For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon his flanks. ²⁸And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps. ²⁹He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon the earth. ³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches; and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away. ³¹Let him not trust in vanity: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense; ³²It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green. ³³He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive. ³⁴For the family of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery. ³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.