Job 20

²Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,

Even by reason of my haste that is in me.

³I have heard the reproof which putteth me to shame;

And the spirit of my understanding answereth me.

⁴Knowest thou not this of old time,

Since man was placed upon earth,

⁵That the triumphing of the wicked is short,

And the joy of the godless but for a moment?

⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens,

And his head reach unto the clouds;

⁷Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung:

They that have seen him shall say, Where is he?

⁸He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found:

Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

⁹The eye which saw him shall see him no more;

Neither shall his place any more behold him.

¹⁰His children shall seek the favor of the poor,

And his hands shall give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of his youth,

But it shall lie down with him in the dust.

¹²Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth,

Though he hide it under his tongue,

¹³Though he spare it, and will not let it go,

But keep it still within his mouth;

¹⁴Yet his food in his bowels is turned,

It is the gall of asps within him.

¹⁵He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again;

God will cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶He shall suck the poison of asps:

The viper’s tongue shall slay him.

¹⁷He shall not look upon the rivers,

The flowing streams of honey and butter.

¹⁸That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down;

According to the substance that he hath gotten, he shall not rejoice.

¹⁹For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor;

He hath violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

²⁰Because he knew no quietness within him,

He shall not save aught of that wherein he delighteth.

²¹There was nothing left that he devoured not;

Therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

²²In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits:

The hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon him.

²³When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath upon him,

And will rain it upon him while he is eating.

²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon,

And the bow of brass shall strike him through.

²⁵He draweth it forth, and it cometh out of his body;

Yea, the glittering point cometh out of his gall:

Terrors are upon him.

²⁶All darkness is laid up for his treasures:

A fire not blown by man shall devour him;

It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

²⁷The heavens shall reveal his iniquity,

And the earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸The increase of his house shall depart;

His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God,

And the heritage appointed unto him by God.