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¹⁶How much less one that is abominable and impure,

Man who drinketh iniquity like water!

 

¹⁷I will tell thee, hear thou me;

And that which I have seen I will declare—

¹⁸Which wise men have told

From their fathers, and have not hid it;

¹⁹Unto whom alone the land was given,

And no stranger passed among them.

²⁰The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,

Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹A sound of terrors is in his ears:

In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

²²He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,

And he is waited for of the sword.

²³He wandereth abroad for bread: 'Where is it?'

He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish overwhelm him;

They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

²⁵Because he hath stretched out his hand against God,

And behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;

²⁶He runneth upon him with a stiff neck,

With the thick bosses of his bucklers.

²⁷Because he hath covered his face with his fatness,

And made collops of fat on his loins;

²⁸And he hath dwelt in desolate cities,

In houses which no man would inhabit,

Which were ready to become heaps.

²⁹He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,

Neither shall their produce bend to the earth.

³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness;

The flame shall dry up his branches,

And by the breath of His mouth shall he go away.

³¹Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself;

For vanity shall be his recompense.

³²It shall be accomplished before his time,

And his branch shall not be leafy.

³³He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,

And shall cast off his flower as the olive.

³⁴For the company of the godless shall be desolate,

And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity,

And their belly prepareth deceit.

16 Then Job answered and said:

²I have heard many such things;

Sorry comforters are ye all.

³Shall windy words have an end?

Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?

⁴I also could speak as ye do;

If your soul were in my soul's stead,

I could join words together against you,

And shake my head at you.

⁵I would strengthen you with my mouth,

And the moving of my lips would assuage your grief.

 

⁶Though I speak, my pain is not assuaged;

And though I forbear, what am I eased?

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