² “Should the wise answer with windy knowledge
    and fill themselves with the east wind?^(A)
3 Should they argue in unprofitable talk
    or in words that can do no good?
⁴ But you are doing away with the fear of God
    and hindering meditation before God.
⁵ For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
    and you choose the tongue of the crafty.^(B)
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
    your own lips testify against you.^(C)

⁷ “Are you the firstborn of the human race?
    Were you brought forth before the hills?^(D)
8 Have you listened in the council of God?
    And do you limit wisdom to yourself?^(E)
9 What do you know that we do not know?
    What do you understand that is not clear to us?^(F)
10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,
    those older than your father.^(G)
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you
    or the word that deals gently with you?^(H)
12 Why does your heart carry you away,
    and why do your eyes flash,^[a]
13 so that you turn your spirit against God,
    and let such words go out of your mouth?^(I)
14 What are mortals, that they can be clean?
    Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?^(J)
15 God puts no trust even in his holy ones,
    and the heavens are not clean in his sight;^(K)
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
    one who drinks iniquity like water!^(L)

¹⁷ “I will show you; listen to me;
    what I have seen I will declare—
¹⁸ what sages have told
    and their ancestors have not hidden,^(M)
19 to whom alone the land was given,
    and no stranger passed among them.
²⁰ The wicked writhe in pain all their days,
    through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.^(N)
21 Terrifying sounds are in their ears;
    in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.^(O)
22 They despair of returning from darkness,
    and they are destined for the sword.^(P)
23 They wander abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
    They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;^(Q)
24 distress and anguish terrify them;
    they prevail against them like a king prepared for battle.
²⁵ Because they stretched out their hands against God
    and bid defiance to the Almighty,^[b](R)
26 running stubbornly against him
    with a thickly bossed shield;
²⁷ because they have covered their faces with their fat
    and gathered fat upon their loins,^(S)
28 they will live in desolate cities,
    in houses that no one should inhabit,
    houses destined to become heaps of ruins;
²⁹ they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure,
    nor will they strike root in the earth;^[c](T)
30 they will not escape from darkness;
    the flame will dry up their shoots,
    and their blossom^[d] will be swept away by the wind.^(U)
31 Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves,
    for emptiness will be their recompense.^(V)
32 It will be paid in full before their time,
    and their branch will not be green.^(W)
33 They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine,
    and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.^(X)
34 For the company of the godless is barren,
    and fire consumes the tents of bribery.^(Y)
35 They conceive mischief and bring forth evil,
    and their belly prepares deceit.”^(Z)