Job 15:17–35

¹⁷“I will show you, hear me;

and what I have seen I will declare

¹⁸(what wise men have told,

and their fathers have not hidden,

¹⁹to whom alone the land was given,

and no stranger passed among them).

²⁰The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,

through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

²¹Terrifying sounds are in his ears;

in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.

²²He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,

and he is destined for the sword.

²³He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’

He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;

²⁴distress and anguish terrify him;

they prevail against him, like a king prepared for battle.

²⁵Because he has stretched forth his hand against God,

and bids defiance to the Almighty,

²⁶running stubbornly against him

with a thick-bossed shield;

²⁷because he has covered his face with his fat,

and gathered fat upon his loins,

²⁸and has lived in desolate cities,

in houses which no man should inhabit,

which were destined to become heaps of ruins;

²⁹he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,

nor will he strike root in the earth;^m

³⁰he will not escape from darkness;

the flame will dry up his shoots,

and his blossomⁿ will be swept away^o by the wind.

³¹Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;

for emptiness will be his recompense.

³²It will be paid in full before his time,

and his branch will not be green.

³³He will shake off his unripe grape, like the vine,

and cast off his blossom, like the olive tree.

³⁴For the company of the godless is barren,

and fire consumes the tents of bribery.

³⁵They conceive mischief and bring forth evil

and their heart prepares deceit.”