Job 20

₂Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer,

And for this I make haste.

₃I have heard the check of my reproach,

And the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

₄Knowest thou not this of old,

Since man was placed upon earth,

₅That the triumphing of the wicked is short,

And the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

₆Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,

And his head reach unto the clouds;

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

They which 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 also which saw him shall see him no more;

Neither shall his place any more behold him.

₁₀His children shall seek to please the poor,

And his hands shall restore their goods.

₁₁His bones are full of the sin of his youth,

Which 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 forsake it not;

But keep it still within his mouth:

₁₄Yet his meat 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 shall cast them out of his belly.

₁₆He shall suck the poison of asps:

The viper's tongue shall slay him.

₁₇He shall not see the rivers,

The floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

₁₈That which he laboured for shall he restore,

And shall not swallow it down:

According to his substance shall the restitution be,

and he shall not rejoice therein.

₁₉Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor;

Because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

₂₀Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly,

He shall not save of that which he desired.

₂₁There shall none of his meat be left;

Therefore shall no man look for his goods.

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

Every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

₂₃When he is about to fill his belly,

God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him,

And shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

₂₄He shall flee from the iron weapon,

And the bow of steel shall strike him through.

₂₅It is drawn, and cometh out of the body;

Yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall:

Terrors are upon him.

₂₆All darkness shall be hid in his secret places:

A fire not blown shall consume him;

It shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

₂₇The heaven shall reveal his iniquity;

And the earth shall rise up against him.

₂₈The increase of his house shall depart,

And 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.