16. How much less the abominable and corrupt, --man, that drinketh unrighteousness like water!
17. I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare;
18. Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden;
19. Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20. All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent.
21. The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him.
22. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword.
23. He wandereth abroad for bread, --where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24. Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for the battle.
25. For he hath stretched out his hand against ·God and strengthened himself against the Almighty:
26. He runneth against him, with outstretched neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers;
27. For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon his flanks.
28. And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps.
29. He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon the earth.
30. He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches; and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
31. Let him not trust in vanity: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense;