Study Desk

His troops advance together, they make their way against me and encamp around my tent.

His pride may mount to the heavens, his head may touch the clouds;

but he will vanish completely, like his own dung — those who used to see him will ask, ‘Where is he?'

The eye which once saw him will see him no more, his place will not behold him again.

His children will have to pay back the poor; his hands will restore their wealth.

His bones may be filled with [the vigor of] his youth, but it will join him lying in the dust.

"Wickedness may taste sweet in his mouth, he may savor and roll it around on his tongue,

he may linger over it and not let it go but keep it there in his mouth —

yet in his stomach his food goes bad, it works inside him like snake venom;

because his appetite would not let him rest, in his greed he let nothing escape;

nothing is left that he did not devour; therefore his well-being will not last.

"This is what will fill his belly! — [God] will lay on him all his burning anger and make it rain over him, into his insides.

he pulls the arrow out of his back, the shining tip comes out from his innards; terrors come upon him.

"Total darkness is laid up for his treasures, a fire fanned by no one will consume him, and calamity awaits what is left in his tent.

The heavens will reveal his guilt, and the earth will rise up against him.

The income of his household will be carried off; his goods will flow away on the day of his wrath.

"How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their calamity come upon them? How often does [God] deal out pain in his anger,

One person dies in his full strength, completely at ease and content;

his pails are full of milk, and the marrow in his bones is moist.

So who will confront him with his ways? Who will repay him for what he has done?