He will not become rich, nor will his wealth endure;
And his grain will not bend to the earth nor his possessions be extended on the earth.

He won't escape darkness; a flame will wither his shoots; and he'll depart by the breath of God's mouth.

He will never apply himself to faithfulness and truth, so sore is he deceived with vanity.

It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green.

“He will fail to bring his grapes to maturity [leaving them to wither unnourished] on the vine,
And will cast off blossoms [and fail to bring forth fruit] like the olive tree.

For the congregation of hypocrites is unfruitful, and the fire shall consume the houses of such as are greedy to receive gifts.

To conceive misery, and to bear iniquity, Even their heart doth prepare deceit.

Such things have frequently come to my ears: you are comforters who only give trouble.

Is there an end to words of wind? Or what doth embolden thee that thou answerest?

I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.

and encourage you with what I have to say; my words of comfort would lessen your pain.

“If I speak [to you miserable comforters], my pain is not relieved;
And if I refrain [from speaking], what [pain or anguish] leaves me?

And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

Go round against me do his archers. He splitteth my reins, and spareth not, He poureth out to the earth my gall.

"I've even sewn sackcloth directly to my skin; I've buried my strength in the dust.

O earth, do not thou cover my blood! And let there not be a place for my cry.

“My friends are scoffers [who ridicule];
My eye pours out tears to God.

crying for him to arbitrate between this man and God; as a human being does with his fellow neighbor.

When a few years do come, Then a path I return not do I go.

Be pleased, now, to be responsible for me to yourself; for there is no other who will put his hand in mine.

“But You [Lord] have closed their hearts to understanding,
Therefore You will not exalt them [by giving a verdict against me].

He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

And he hath made me a proverb of the peoples; and I am become one to be spit on in the face.

My eyes have become dark because of my pain, and all my body is wasted to a shade.

“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his ways,
And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.

My days have slipped by;
my plans have been ruined,
even the things dear to my heart.

They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.

“But if I look to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) as my home,
If I make my bed in the darkness,

I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

When do ye set an end to words? Consider ye, and afterwards do we speak.

Why do we seem as beasts in your eyes, and as completely without knowledge?

You're tearing yourself to pieces in your anger. Will the land be abandoned because of you, or the rock be moved from its place?"

"Indeed, the light of the wicked is extinguished; the flame from his fire doesn't shine.

Seize on the heel doth a gin, Prevail over him do the designing.

The twisted cord is put secretly in the earth to take him, and the cord is placed in his way.

Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.

His strength is depleted;
disaster lies ready for him to stumble.

His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.

“Nothing of his dwells in his tent;
Brimstone (burning sulfur) is scattered over his dwelling [to purify it].

His memory shall perish from the earth, and there is no name to him on the face of the street.

He is driven from light to darkness
and chased from the inhabited world.

He has no children or descendants among his people,
no survivor where he used to live.

They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.

Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn't know God."

Till when do ye afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?

These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

If I go wrong, I go wrong to myself.

If you really want to appear superior to me
and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,

Behold: though I cry, yet violence is done unto me. I cannot be heard! Though I complain, there is none to give sentence with me.

He has walled up my way so that I can't pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

He is breaking me down on every side, and now it's too late for me; he has uprooted my hopes like a tree.

And He kindleth against me His anger, And reckoneth me to Him as His adversaries.

Come in do His troops together, And they raise up against me their way, And encamp round about my tent.

He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.

I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.

To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.

My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.

Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

"Be gracious to me, be gracious to me, my friends, because God's hand has struck me.

Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

using an iron stylus with lead for ink! Then they'd be engraved in rock forever.

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire.

But ye say, 'Why do we pursue after him?' And the root of the matter hath been found in me.

Be ye afraid - on your part - of the face of the sword, because, wrath, bringeth the punishments of the sword, to the end ye may know the Almighty.

Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.

I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

“Do you not know this from the old days,
Since the time that man was placed on the earth,

Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever: those who have seen him say, Where is he?

Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found, and like a vision of the night he is put to flight.

The eye that hath scanned him, shall not do it again, neither, any more, shall his place behold him:

His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

Though he desires it and will not let it go
But holds it in his mouth,

Yet his food turns [to poison] in his stomach;
It is the venom of vipers within him.

“He does not look at the rivers,
The flowing streams of honey and butter [to enjoy his wealth].

That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

"Since his appetite won't quit; he won't let anything escape his lust.

There is not a remnant to his food, Therefore his good doth not stay.

At the height of his success distress will come to him;
the full weight of misery will crush him.

When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

"Total darkness has been reserved for his treasures; a fire that has no need to be kindled will devour him and consume whatever remains in his possession.

Reveal do the heavens his iniquity, And earth is raising itself against him.

The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

This is the portion of the wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God.

"Listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation.

Bear with me and let me speak! Then, after I've spoken, you'll be free to mock me.

As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

Turn unto me, and be astonished, And put hand to mouth.

When I call to mind, then am I dismayed, and there seizeth my flesh a shuddering: -

Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?

Their children grow up while they're alive, and they live to see their grandchildren.

“His bull breeds and does not fail;
His cow calves and does not miscarry.

They release their children to play like sheep; their young ones dance about,