Job 20:4–18

⁴Do you not know that from antiquity,

since man was placed on the earth,

⁵the triumph of the wicked has been brief

and the joy of the godless momentary?

⁶Though his arrogance reaches the heavens,

and his head touches the clouds,

⁷he will perish forever, like his own dung;

those who had seen him will ask, ‘Where is he?’

⁸He will fly away like a dream, never to be found;

he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

⁹The eye that saw him will see him no more,

and his place will no longer behold him.

¹⁰His sons will seek the favor of the poor,

for his own hands must return his wealth.

¹¹The youthful vigor that fills his bones

will lie down with him in the dust.

¹²Though evil is sweet in his mouth

and he conceals it under his tongue,

¹³though he cannot bear to let it go

and keeps it in his mouth,

¹⁴yet in his stomach his food sours

into the venom of cobras within him.

¹⁵He swallows wealth but vomits it out;

God will force it from his stomach.

¹⁶He will suck the poison of cobras;

the fangs of a viper will kill him.

¹⁷He will not enjoy the streams,

the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

¹⁸He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;

he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.