¹⁸ Your way and your doings have procured these things to you; this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.

¹⁹ Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts.

¹⁷ Haven't you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?

¹ Thus says Yahweh, Where is the bill of your mother's divorce, with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.

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

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

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

¹⁹ It shall happen, when you shall say, Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us? then shall you say to them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

²² The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

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

⁵ That the triumphing of the wicked is short, 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 Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung, Those who have seen him shall say, 'Where is he?'

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

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

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

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

¹² "Though wickedness is 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 cobra venom within him.

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

¹⁶ He shall suck cobra venom. The viper's tongue shall kill him.