Job 20

Tree of Life Version

² “In truth, my troubled thoughts urge me to answer
    because of my feelings within me.
³ I hear a rebuke that dishonors me
    and my understanding inspires me to reply.
⁴ Do you not know that it has been from old,
    since mankind was put on earth,
⁵ that the triumph of the wicked is short
    and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
⁶ Though his pride reaches to the heavens,
    and his head touches the clouds,
⁷ he perishes forever like his own dung.
    Those who have seen him will say,
    ‘Where is he?’
⁸ Like a dream, he flies away
    and they cannot find him;
like a vision of the night,
    he is chased away.
⁹ The eye that saw him will not see him again;
    his place will look on him no more.
¹⁰ His children must recompense the poor;
    his own hands must give back his wealth.
¹¹ His bones were full of his youthful vigor
    but it will lie down with him in the dust.
¹² Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
    though he hides it under his tongue,
¹³ though he cannot bear to let it go
    and holds it in his mouth,
¹⁴ his food turns sour in his stomach;
    it becomes the venom of serpents within him.
¹⁵ He swallows riches and vomits them up;
    God empties it out of his stomach.
¹⁶ He sucks the poison of serpents;
    fangs of a viper kill him.
¹⁷ He will not look at streams,
    rivers flowing with honey and butter.
¹⁸ He gives back what he toiled for without swallowing it;
he will not enjoy the riches of his trade.
¹⁹ For he has oppressed and abandoned the poor.
He has seized a house he did not build.
²⁰ For he knows no satisfaction from his greed,
    he cannot save himself by his desires.
²¹ Nothing remains for him to devour;
    therefore his prosperity will not last.
²² In the fullness of his plenty, he will be distressed;
the full force of misery will come upon him.
²³ While he is filling his belly,
    He will send the anger of His wrath against him,
    and rain it down it on him, on his flesh.
²⁴ Though he flees from an iron weapon,
    a bronze bow pierces him through.
²⁵ He pulls and it comes out of his back,
    the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors come upon him!
²⁶ Total darkness waits for his treasures;
    A fire not fanned will devour him;
    it will consume what is left in his tent.
²⁷ The heavens will expose his iniquity;
    the earth will rise up against him.
²⁸ A flood will carry off his house,
    rushing waters on the day of His wrath.
²⁹ Such is the wicked man’s lot from God,
    the heritage appointed to him by God.”