Job 20

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

² “Listen! My thoughts urge me to answer
    because of the agitation within me.
³ I hear censure that insults me,
    and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.^(A)
4 Do you not know this from of old,
    ever since mortals were placed on earth,^(B)
5 that the exulting of the wicked is short
    and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?^(C)
6 Even though they mount up high as the heavens
    and their head reaches to the clouds,^(D)
7 they will perish forever like their own dung;
    those who have seen them will say, ‘Where are they?’
⁸ They will fly away like a dream and not be found;
    they will be chased away like a vision of the night.^(E)
9 The eye that saw them will see them no more,
    nor will their place behold them any longer.^(F)
10 Their children will seek the favor of the poor,
    and their hands will give back their wealth.^(G)
11 Their bodies, once full of youth,
    will lie down in the dust with them.^(H)

¹² “Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth,
    though they hide it under their tongues,^(I)
13 though they are loath to let it go
    and hold it in their mouths,
¹⁴ yet their food is turned in their stomachs;
    it is the venom of asps within them.
¹⁵ They swallow down riches and vomit them up again;
    God casts them out of their bellies.
¹⁶ They will suck the poison of asps;
    the tongue of a viper will kill them.^(J)
17 They will not look on the rivers,
    the streams flowing with honey and curds.^(K)
18 They will give back the fruit of their toil
    and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of their trading
    they will get no enjoyment.^(L)
19 For they have crushed and abandoned the poor;
    they have seized a house that they did not build.^(M)

²⁰ “For they knew no quiet in their bellies;
    in their greed they let nothing escape.^(N)
21 There was nothing left after they had eaten;
    therefore their prosperity will not endure.^(O)
22 In full sufficiency they will be in distress;
    all the force of misery will come upon them.
²³ To fill their belly to the full,
    God^[a] will send his fierce anger into them
    and rain it upon them as their food.^(P)
24 They will flee from an iron weapon;
    a bronze arrow will strike them through.^(Q)
25 It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,
    and the glittering point comes out of their gall;
    terrors come upon them.^(R)
26 Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;
    a fire fanned by no one will devour them;
    what is left in their tent will be consumed.^(S)
27 The heavens will reveal their iniquity,
    and the earth will rise up against them.^(T)
28 The possessions of their house will be carried away,
    dragged off in the day of God’s^[b] wrath.^(U)
29 This is the portion of the wicked from God,
    the heritage decreed for them by God.”^(V)