Job 20

_1-2Job, you upset me. Now I'm impatient to answer.

₃What you have said is an insult,

but I know how to reply to you.

₄Surely you know that from ancient times,

when human beings were first placed on earth,

₅no wicked people have been happy for long.

₆They may grow great, towering to the sky,

so great that their heads reach the clouds,

₇but they will be blown away like dust.

Those who used to know them

will wonder where they have gone.

₈They will vanish like a dream, like a vision at night,

and never be seen again.

₉The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;

₁₀and their children will make good what they stole from the poor.

₁₁Their bodies used to be young and vigorous,

but soon they will turn to dust.

_12-13Evil tastes so good to them

that they keep some in their mouths to enjoy its flavour.

₁₄But in their stomachs the food turns bitter,

as bitter as any poison could be.

₁₅The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole;

God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.

₁₆What evil people swallow is like poison;

it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.

₁₇They will not live to see rivers of olive oil

or streams that flow with milk and honey.

₁₈They will have to give up all they have worked for;

they will have no chance to enjoy their wealth,

₁₉because they oppressed and neglected the poor

and seized houses someone else had built.

₂₀Their greed is never satisfied.

₂₁When they eat, there is nothing left over,

but now their prosperity comes to an end.

₂₂At the height of their success

all the weight of misery will crush them.

₂₃Let them eat all they want!

God will punish them in fury and anger.

₂₄When they try to escape from an iron sword,

a bronze bow will shoot them down.

₂₅Arrows stick through their bodies;

the shiny points drip with their blood,

and terror grips their hearts.

₂₆Everything they have saved is destroyed;

a fire not lit by human hands

burns them and all their families.

₂₇Heaven reveals their sin,

and the earth gives testimony against them.

₂₈All their wealth will be destroyed

in the flood of God's anger.

₂₉This is the fate of the wicked,

the fate that God assigns to them.