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17 “I will show you, listen to me;
    that which I have seen I will declare
18 (which wise men have told by their fathers,
    and have not hidden it;
19 to whom alone the land was given,
    and no stranger passed among them):
20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
    even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
21 A sound of terrors is in his ears.
    In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.
22 He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness.
    He is waited for by the sword.
23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
    He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24 Distress and anguish make him afraid.
    They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God,
    and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,
26 he runs at him with a stiff neck,
    with the thick shields of his bucklers,
27 because he has covered his face with his fatness,
    and gathered fat on his thighs.
28 He has lived in desolate cities,
    in houses which no one inhabited,
    which were ready to become heaps.
29 He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue,
    neither will their possessions be extended on the earth.
30 He will not depart out of darkness.
    The flame will dry up his branches.
    He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth.
31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;
    for emptiness will be his reward.
32 It will be accomplished before his time.
    His branch will not be green.
33 He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
    and will cast off his flower as the olive tree.
34 For the company of the godless will be barren,
    and fire will consume the tents of bribery.
35 They conceive mischief and produce iniquity.
    Their heart prepares deceit.”

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