Job 15:17-35
New Century Version
17 “Listen to me, and I will tell you about it;
I will tell you what I have seen.
18 These are things wise men have told;
their ancestors told them, and they have hidden nothing.
19 (The land was given to their fathers only,
and no foreigner lived among them.)
20 The wicked suffer pain all their lives;
the cruel suffer during all the years saved up for them.
21 Terrible sounds fill their ears,
and when things seem to be going well, robbers attack them.
22 Evil people give up trying to escape from the darkness;
it has been decided that they will die by the sword.
23 They wander around and will become food for vultures.
They know darkness will soon come.
24 Worry and suffering terrify them;
they overwhelm them, like a king ready to attack,
25 because they shake their fists at God
and try to get their own way against the Almighty.
26 They stubbornly charge at God
with thick, strong shields.
27 “Although the faces of the wicked are thick with fat,
and their bellies are fat with flesh,
28 they will live in towns that are ruined,
in houses where no one lives,
which are crumbling into ruins.
29 The wicked will no longer get rich,
and the riches they have will not last;
the things they own will no longer spread over the land.
30 They will not escape the darkness.
A flame will dry up their branches;
God’s breath will carry the wicked away.
31 The wicked should not fool themselves by trusting what is useless.
If they do, they will get nothing in return.
32 Their branches will dry up before they finish growing
and will never turn green.
33 They will be like a vine whose grapes are pulled off before they are ripe,
like an olive tree that loses its blossoms.
34 People without God can produce nothing.
Fire will destroy the tents of those who take money to do evil,
35 who plan trouble and give birth to evil,
whose hearts plan ways to trick others.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.