Moff JOB Chapter 20

2 

“Now this does rouse my soul,

my heart is stirred,

3 

to listen to your insults and excuses--

an empty answer to my arguments!

4 

Know you not that from of old,

ever since man was in the world,

5 

the sinner never sings for long,

and godless men have shortlived joy?

6 

Though he may tower in triumph to the skies,

although his head may touch the very clouds,

7 

he shall be swept away like his own dung,

till those who knew him ask, ‘Where is he?’

8 

He disappears like a dream--no trace of him--

he vanishes like a vision of the night;

11 

when manly vigour fills his frame,

he and his manly vigour go to dust;

10 

he leaves his children poor,

his sons have to disgorge his plunder.

12 

Though sin is a sweet morsel in his mouth,

though he rolls it under his tongue,

13 

loth to let it go,

keeping it still on his palate,

14 

yet the food turns to venom in his stomach,

to the poison of asps;

16 

asps shall sting him with their tongues,

and he sucks in poison.

15 

He has to vomit the wealth he has swallowed;

God makes him eject it.

17 

He shall not feed on milk from the meadows,

on honey or on butter from the pastures;

18 

his swelling hoards bring him no happiness,

he has no joy, for all his trafficking.

19 

As he was hard upon the poor,

and seized on houses that he never built,

20 

as his greed knew no pause,

he shall not save one thing that he desired;

21 

as nothing ever escaped his grasp,

his own. prosperity shall not last;

22 

for all his wealth, he finds himself in straits,

exposed to the full force of misery.

23 

God lets his anger loose at him,

and rains on him his wrath!

24 

He flies from men in iron mail,

and is shot down by a bow of bronze;

25 

the arrow comes out at his back,

the point driven through his entrails;

death’s terrors close on him,

26 

deep darkness is his doom.

A fire that no man lit consumes him,

burning up all he leaves at home;

28 

his well-stored house is swept to ruin,

accursed in the day of wrath divine.

27 

Heaven lays bare his guilt,

earth rises to denounce him.

29 

This is what God bestows upon a sinner,

this is what God awards a godless man.”

21 Eyob replied:

2 

“Attend to what I urge; “

it will console me, if you only listen!

3 

Pray let me have my say;

and after I have spoken, mock away!

4 

It is not against man that I complain;

so why should I be patient?

5 

See here! let this astound you,

awe you into silence!--

6 

when I think of it, I am all aghast,

I am seized with shuddering.

7 

Why do wicked men live on,

live to be old and strong?

9 

Their homes are safe from fear;

God’s rod never strikes them.

10 

Their bulls breed without fail,

their cows calve safely.

8 

They see their family flourishing,

their eyes rest on their offspring;

11 

their children flock out to the fields,

boys and girls dancing merrily.

12 

They sing to the lyre and tambourine,

make merry to the music of the pipe;

13 

they lead a prosperous life,

die in peace--

14 

men who bade God, ‘Begone from us;

we have no interest in thee and thine!

15 

Why should we serve the Almighty?

What is the good of us praying to him?’

18 

(--to him who fills them 18 with prosperity!

Far be such impious thoughts from me!)