Family Prayer
in the Early Evening

² “Therefore my thoughts answer me,
    because of my haste within me.
³ I hear censure that insults me,
    and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
⁴ Do you not know this from of old,
    since man was placed on earth,
⁵ that the exulting of the wicked is short,
    and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
⁶ Though his height mount up to the heavens,
    and his head reach to the clouds,
⁷ he will perish forever like his own dung;
    those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
⁸ He will fly away like a dream and not be found;
    he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
⁹ The eye that saw him will see him no more,
    nor will his place any more behold him.
¹⁰ His children will seek the favor of the poor,
    and his hands will give back his wealth.
¹¹ His bones are full of his youthful vigor,
    but it will lie down with him in the dust.

¹² “Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
    though he hides it under his tongue,
¹³ though he is loath to let it go
    and holds it in his mouth,
¹⁴ yet his food is turned in his stomach;
    it is the venom of cobras within him.
¹⁵ He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;
    God casts them out of his belly.
¹⁶ He will suck the poison of cobras;
    the tongue of a viper will kill him.
¹⁷ He will not look upon the rivers,
    the streams flowing with honey and curds.
¹⁸ He will give back the fruit of his toil
    and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of his trading
    he will get no enjoyment.
¹⁹ For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;
    he has seized a house that he did not build.

²⁰ “Because he knew no contentment in his belly,
    he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
²¹ There was nothing left after he had eaten;
    therefore his prosperity will not endure.
²² In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;
    the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
²³ To fill his belly to the full,
    God will send his burning anger against him
    and rain it upon him into his body.
²⁴ He will flee from an iron weapon;
    a bronze arrow will strike him through.
²⁵ It is drawn forth and comes out of his body;
    the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder;
    terrors come upon him.
²⁶ Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;
    a fire not fanned will devour him;
    what is left in his tent will be consumed.
²⁷ The heavens will reveal his iniquity,
    and the earth will rise up against him.
²⁸ The possessions of his house will be carried away,
    dragged off in the day of God's wrath.
²⁹ This is the wicked man's portion from God,
    the heritage decreed for him by God.”