Job 24:19–21

¹⁴Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

¹³They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.

²²And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

³²The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.

⁴¶ For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

⁵For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

⁶Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

²⁰But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

²As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

²³One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

³²Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.

³³The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

³⁴How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?

¹⁵My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;

¹⁶Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid:

¹⁷What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

⁸As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

⁹Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.

⁷The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.

¹⁴He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches:

¹⁶His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.

¹⁷His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

¹⁰And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.

¹⁴They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

⁷For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

⁸Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

⁹Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

¹⁰But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

¹⁴I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

²⁶And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

¹⁰And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

⁶And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.

⁷And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.

⁹Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

¹³The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

³They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

¹⁶If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

¹⁸(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;)