Study Desk

I will tell you; hear me, and I will declare this that I have seen;

that which wise men have told and have not hidden from their fathers;

to them alone the land was given; and no alien passed among them.

All the days of the wicked he is laboring in pain; a number of years are stored up for the ruthless.

A dreadful sound of things is in his ears; the one devastating shall come on him in peace.

He does not believe in a return from darkness, but he is awaited by the sword.

He is wandering, for he seeks for bread. Where is it ? He knows that the day of darkness is at his hand.

Distress and pain terrify him; they shall overpower him, as a king ready for the attack;

because he stretched out his hand against God; and he acts mighty against the Almighty.

He runs at Him with a stiff neck, with the thick layers of his shields,

because he has covered his face with fat; yea, he has put fat on his loins.

And he dwells in cut off cities; houses, none lives in them, which are ready to become heaps.

He shall not be rich, nor shall his wealth hold out; nor shall he stretch out their gain on the earth.

He shall not escape from darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches; and he shall turn at the breath of His mouth.

Let not he being deceived trust in vanity; for his reward shall be vanity.

Before his day it shall be fulfilled, and his branch shall not be green;

he shall shake off its unripe grape as the vine; and he shall cast its flower like the olive.

For the company of the ungodly shall be bleak; and fire shall devour the tents of bribery;

they conceive mischief and generate evil; and their belly prepares deceit.