Job 20:4-18

4“Surely you know that it has been from old, ever since humankind was placed on the earth,

5that the elation of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

6Even though his stature reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,

7he will perish forever, like his own excrement; those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?’

8Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found, and like a vision of the night he is put to flight.

9People who had seen him will not see him again, and the place where he was will recognize him no longer.

10His sons must recompense the poor; his own hands must return his wealth.

11His bones were full of his youthful vigor, but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.

12“If evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,

13if he retains it for himself and does not let it go, and holds it fast in his mouth,

14his food is turned sour in his stomach; it becomes the venom of serpents within him.

15The wealth that he consumed he vomits up, God will make him throw it out of his stomach.

16He sucks the poison of serpents; the fangs of a viper kill him.

17He will not look on the streams, the rivers, which are the torrents of honey and butter.

18He gives back the ill-gotten gain without assimilating it; he will not enjoy the wealth from his commerce.