Job 20

² “Therefore my thoughts answer me,
    even by reason of my haste that is in me.
³ I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame.
    The spirit of my understanding answers me.
⁴ Don’t you know this from old time,
    since man was placed on earth,
⁵ that the triumphing of the wicked is short,
    the joy of the godless but for a moment?
⁶ Though his height mount up to the heavens,
    and his head reach to the clouds,
⁷ yet he will perish forever like his own dung.
    Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
⁸ He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found.
    Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
⁹ The eye which saw him will see him no more,
    neither will his place see him any more.
¹⁰ His children will seek the favor of the poor.
    His hands will give back his wealth.
¹¹ His bones are full of his youth,
    but youth will lie down with him in the dust.

¹² “Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth,
    though he hide it under his tongue,
¹³ though he spare it, and will not let it go,
    but keep it still within his mouth;
¹⁴ yet his food in his bowels is turned.
    It is cobra venom within him.
¹⁵ He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again.
    God will cast them out of his belly.
¹⁶ He will suck cobra venom.
    The viper’s tongue will kill him.
¹⁷ He will not look at the rivers,
    the flowing streams of honey and butter.
¹⁸ He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down.
    He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten.
¹⁹ For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor.
    He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up.

²⁰ “Because he knew no quietness within him,
    he will not save anything of that in which he delights.
²¹ There was nothing left that he didn’t devour,
    therefore his prosperity will not endure.
²² In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him.
    The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him.
²³ When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him.
    It will rain on him while he is eating.
²⁴ He will flee from the iron weapon.
    The bronze arrow will strike him through.
²⁵ He draws it out, and it comes out of his body.
    Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver.
    Terrors are on him.
²⁶ All darkness is laid up for his treasures.
    An unfanned fire will devour him.
    It will consume that which is left in his tent.
²⁷ The heavens will reveal his iniquity.
    The earth will rise up against him.
²⁸ The increase of his house will depart.
    They will rush away in the day of his wrath.
²⁹ This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
    the heritage appointed to him by God.”

Job 19   ■   Job 21