Job 15:17-35

New Century Version

¹⁷ “Listen to me, and I will tell you about it;
    I will tell you what I have seen.
¹⁸ These are things wise men have told;
    their ancestors told them, and they have hidden nothing.
¹⁹ (The land was given to their fathers only,
    and no foreigner lived among them.)
²⁰ The wicked suffer pain all their lives;
    the cruel suffer during all the years saved up for them.
²¹ Terrible sounds fill their ears,
    and when things seem to be going well, robbers attack them.
²² Evil people give up trying to escape from the darkness;
    it has been decided that they will die by the sword.
²³ They wander around and will become food for vultures.
    They know darkness will soon come.
²⁴ Worry and suffering terrify them;
    they overwhelm them, like a king ready to attack,
²⁵ because they shake their fists at God
    and try to get their own way against the Almighty.
²⁶ They stubbornly charge at God
    with thick, strong shields.

²⁷ “Although the faces of the wicked are thick with fat,
    and their bellies are fat with flesh,
²⁸ they will live in towns that are ruined,
    in houses where no one lives,
    which are crumbling into ruins.
²⁹ The wicked will no longer get rich,
    and the riches they have will not last;
    the things they own will no longer spread over the land.
³⁰ They will not escape the darkness.
    A flame will dry up their branches;
    God’s breath will carry the wicked away.
³¹ The wicked should not fool themselves by trusting what is useless.
    If they do, they will get nothing in return.
³² Their branches will dry up before they finish growing
    and will never turn green.
³³ They will be like a vine whose grapes are pulled off before they are ripe,
    like an olive tree that loses its blossoms.
³⁴ People without God can produce nothing.
    Fire will destroy the tents of those who take money to do evil,
³⁵ who plan trouble and give birth to evil,
    whose hearts plan ways to trick others.”