The Inevitable Fate of the Wicked

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“I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare:

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(Which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it;

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to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them):

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the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

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A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.

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He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

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He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

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Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

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Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;

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he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers;

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because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.

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He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

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He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

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He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.

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Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.

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It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.

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He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.

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For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

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They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”