1   Bvt Sophar the Naamathite answering, sayd: ^note

2   Therfore my diuerse cogitations succede one an other, and my minde is rapt into sundrie things.

3   The doctrine, wherwith thou reprouest me, I wil heare, and the spitit of my vnderstanding shal answer me.

4   This I know from the beginning,

since man was placed vpon the earth,

5   That the praise of the impious is ^note short, and the ioy of the hypocrite as it were for a moment:

6   If his pride rise vp euen to the heauen, and his head touch the cloudes:

7   As a dunghil in the end he shal be destroyed, and they that had sene him, shal say: Where is he?

8   As a dreame that fleeth away he shal not qe found, he shal passe as a vision by night:

9   The eie that had sene him, shal not see him, neither shal his place behold him anie more.

10   His children shal come to naught with pouertie, and his handes shal render him his sorow.

11   His bones shal be filled with the vices of his youth, and they shal sleepe with him in the dust.

12   For when euil shal be sweete in his mouth, he wil hide it vnder his tongue.

13   He wil spare it, and not leaue it, and wil hide it in his throte.

14   His bread in his belly shal be turned into the gaule of aspes within him.

15   The riches, which he hath deuoured, he shal vomite out, and God shal draw them forth out of his belly.

16   He shal sucke the head of aspes, and the vipers tongue shal kil him.

17   (Let him not see the streames of the riuer, the torrentes of honie, & of butter.)

18   He shal be punished for al thinges that he did, & yet not be c&obar;nsumed: according to the multitude of his inuentions so also shal he suffer.

19   Because breaking in he hath made the poore naked: he hath violently taken house, & built it not

20   Neither is his bellie filled: and when he shal haue the thinges be coueted, he can not possesse them.

21   There remayned not of his meate, & therfore nothing shal continewe of his goodes:

22   When he shal be filled, he shal be straytened, he shal burne, and al sorow shal fal vpon him.

23   Would God his belly were filled, that he may send forth the wrath of his furie vpon him, and rayne his battel vpon him,

24   He shal flee wepons of yron, and shal fal vpon a bowe of brasse.

25   The sword plucked out, and coming forth of his scabbard, and glistering in his bitternesse: the horrible shal goe and come vpon him.

26   Al darkenesse is hid in his secretes: fyre that is not kindled shal deuoure him, he shal be afflicted leaft in his tabernacle.

27   The heauens shal reuele his iniquitie, and the earth shal rise against him.

28   The blossome of his house shal be opened, he shal be plucked downe in the day of Gods furie.

29   This the portion of an impions man from God, & the inheritance of his wordes from our Lord.

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