² This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer,
because I am upset!^[a]
3 I have heard a rebuke that insults me,
and my understanding^[b] makes me reply.^(B)

⁴ Don’t you know that ever since antiquity,
from the time man was placed on earth,
⁵ the joy of the wicked has been brief
and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?^(C)
6 Though his arrogance reaches heaven,
and his head touches the clouds,^(D)
7 he will vanish forever like his own dung.
Those who know^[c] him will ask, “Where is he?”^(E)
8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found;
he will be chased away like a vision in the night.^(F)
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more,^(G)
and his household will no longer see him.^(H)
10 His children will beg from^[d] the poor,
for his own hands must give back his wealth.
¹¹ His bones may be full of youthful vigor,
but will lie down with him in the grave.^(I)

¹² Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth
and he conceals it under his tongue,
¹³ though he cherishes it and will not let it go
but keeps it in his mouth,^(J)
14 yet the food in his stomach turns
into cobras’ venom inside him.
¹⁵ He swallows wealth but must vomit it up;
God will force it from his stomach.
¹⁶ He will suck the poison of cobras;
a viper’s fangs^[e] will kill him.^(K)
17 He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and cream.^(L)
18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;
he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.
¹⁹ For he oppressed and abandoned the poor;
he seized a house he did not build.^(M)

²⁰ Because his appetite is never satisfied,^[f]
he does not let anything he desires escape.
²¹ Nothing is left for him to consume;^(N)
therefore, his prosperity will not last.
²² At the height of his success^[g] distress will come to him;^(O)
the full weight of misery^[h] will crush him.
²³ When he fills his stomach,
God will send His burning anger against him,
raining^(P) it down on him while he is eating.^[i]
24 If he flees from an iron weapon,
an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.
²⁵ He pulls it out of his back,
the flashing tip out of his liver.^[j]
Terrors come over him.^(Q)
26 Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.
A fire unfanned by human hands will consume^(R) him;
it will feed on what is left in his tent.
²⁷ The heavens will expose his iniquity,^(S)
and the earth will rise up against him.^(T)
28 The possessions in his house will be removed,
flowing away on the day of God’s anger.
²⁹ This is the wicked man’s lot^(U) from God,
the inheritance God ordained for him.