Job 20:1-20
English Standard Version
2"Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
3I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
4Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth,
5 that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
7he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
8He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.
10His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.
11His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.
12"Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,
13though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth,
14yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him.
15He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.
16He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him.
17He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.
18He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment.
19For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.
20"Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
