Job 20

2 “I did not expect you to answer back like this,

and you understand no more than I do.

3 I will listen to instruction that shames me,

and a spirit out of my understanding answers me.

4 Have you not known these things from long ago,

from the time man was set on the earth —

5 that the delight of the ungodly is an extraordinary fall,

and the gladness of lawbreakers is destruction,

6 even if his gifts go up to heaven

and his sacrifice touches the clouds?

7 For when he seems at last to be settled,

then he is finished off completely,

and the men who saw him will say, ‘Where is he?’

8 Like a dream that has flown away he will not be found;

he has darted off like a vision in the night.

9 An eye caught sight of him and will not again,

and his own place will take no more notice of him.

10 Let lesser men destroy his sons,

and let his own hands light the beacons of pain.

11 His bones were filled with his youth,

and his youth will lie down with him on the burial mound.

12 If evil tastes sweet in his mouth,

he will hide it under his tongue;

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

but will hold it in the middle of his throat.

14 And he will not be able to help himself:

the gall of an asp is in his belly.

15 Wealth gathered unrighteously will be vomited back up;

a messenger will drag him out of his house.

16 Let him suck the venom of serpents,

and let a snake’s tongue kill him.

17 Let him never see the milking of the herds,

or the pastures of honey and butter.

18 He wore himself out for wealth, empty and pointless,

and he will not taste it —

like gristle nobody can chew or swallow.

19 For he crushed the houses of many powerless men,

and seized a dwelling he had not put up.

20 There is no rescue for anything he owns;

he will not be saved by what he wants.

21 Nothing is left over from his food;

that is why his good things will not flower.

22 And when he seems at last to be full, he will be squeezed,

and every hardship will come on him.

23 If he somehow fills his belly,

let the heat of anger be sent against him,

let pains be washed over him.

24 And he will not be saved from the hand of iron;

let a bronze bow wound him.

25 Let the arrow pass right through his body,

let lightning walk about in his lodgings.

Terrors are on him.

26 Let every darkness lie in wait for him;

a fire nobody lit will eat him up,

and let a newcomer bring harm on his house.

27 Let heaven uncover his lawless deeds,

and let the earth rise up against him.

28 Let destruction drag his house away to the end;

let a day of anger come on him.

29 This is the share of an ungodly man from the Lord,

and the property that belongs to him, from the Overseer.”