Job 20

Common English Bible

² Therefore, my troubled thoughts make me turn back—
    because of my inner turmoil.
³ I hear teaching that insults me,
    but I am forced to answer based on my own understanding.^[a]
4 Do you know this from long ago—
        from when humans were placed on earth—
⁵     that the rejoicing of the wicked is short,
        the joy of the godless, brief?
⁶ Though their height reaches heaven
    and their heads touch the clouds,
⁷     they will perish forever like their dung;
    those who saw them will say, “Where are they?”
⁸ They will disappear like a dream,
        and none will find them,
    carried away like a nighttime vision.
⁹ The eye that saw them will do so no more;
    they won’t be seen again at home.
¹⁰ Their children will repay the poor;
    their hands will give back their wealth.
¹¹ Vigor filled their bones
    and now sleeps with them in the dust.
¹² Though wickedness is sweet in their mouths,
    they hide it under their tongues;
¹³     they like it, won’t let it go;
    they hold it in their cheeks.
¹⁴ Food turns their stomachs,
    becoming a cobra’s poison inside.
¹⁵ They swallow wealth and vomit it;
    God dislodges it from their belly.
¹⁶ They suck cobra’s poison;
    a viper’s tongue kills them.
¹⁷ They won’t experience streams,
    rivers of honey, and brooks of cream.
¹⁸ They won’t receive the reward for their labor;
    they won’t enjoy the wealth from their business.
¹⁹ They crushed and abandoned the poor;
    stole a house they didn’t build;
²⁰     didn’t know contentment in their belly;
    couldn’t escape with their treasure.
²¹ Nothing remained of their food,
    so their riches will not endure.
²² Even in their plenty, they are hard-pressed;
    all sorts of trouble come on them.
²³ Let God^[b] fill their belly,
    unleash his burning anger on them,
    rain punishing blows on them.
²⁴ If they flee an iron weapon,
    a bronze bow pierces them.
²⁵ They pull it out, but it sticks out from their backs;
    its shaft in their liver brings terror.
²⁶ Complete darkness waits for their treasured possessions;
    fire that no one stoked consumes them;
        what’s left in their tent is ruined.
²⁷ Heaven exposes their guilt;
    earth opposes them.
²⁸ Their household wealth will be carried off
    by rushing streams on the day of his anger.
²⁹ This is a wicked person’s lot from God,
    their heritage decreed by God.