17. Listen to me and I will show thee and declare unto thee that which I have seen,
18. that which the wise men have told us of their fathers and have not hid it,
19. unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20. The wicked man travails with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden from the violent.
21. Fearful sounds are in his ears; in peace the destroyer shall come upon him.
22. He will not believe that he shall return out of darkness, and he is always watching the sword.
23. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knows that the day of darkness is prepared for him.
24. Tribulation and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25. Because he extended his hand against God and strengthens himself against the Almighty,
26. he shall run him through in the neck, upon the thick shoulder pieces of his shields;
27. for he covered his face with his fatness and made collops of fat on his flanks;
28. and he dwelt in desolate cities and in houses which no one inhabited, which were in heaps.
29. He shall not become rich, nor shall his strength be established, neither shall he extend his beauty upon the earth.
30. He shall not escape from the darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth he shall perish.
31. He shall not be established; in vanity he shall err; therefore, he shall be changed into vanity.
32. He shall be cut off before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
33. He shall shake off his sour grapes as the vine and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
34. For the congregation of the hypocrites shall be made desolate, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
35. They conceive pain and bring forth iniquity, and their belly meditates deceit.