¹⁸ Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reacheth unto thy heart.

¹⁹ Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

¹⁷ Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by the way?

¹ Thus saith Jehovah, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, wherewith I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were ye sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.

¹⁷ Fools because of their transgression, And because of their iniquities, are afflicted.

¹⁹ Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? did he not fear Jehovah, and entreat the favor of Jehovah, and Jehovah repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evil against our own souls.

¹⁹ Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

¹⁹ And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah our God done all these things unto us? then shalt thou say unto them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

²² His own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.

³¹ Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own devices.

⁵ That the triumphing 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 unto the clouds;

⁷ Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: They that have seen him shall say, Where is he?

⁸ He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

⁹ The eye which saw him shall see him no more; Neither shall his place any more behold him.

¹⁰ His children shall seek the favor of the poor, And his hands shall give back his wealth.

¹¹ His bones are full of his youth, But it shall lie down with him in the dust.

¹² Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, Though he hide it under his tongue,

¹³ Though he spare it, and will not let it go, But keep it still within his mouth;

¹⁴ Yet his food in his bowels is turned, It is the gall of asps within him.

¹⁵ He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again; God will cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶ He shall suck the poison of asps: The viper's tongue shall slay him.