18 I will tell you what wise men would say, things they heard from their fathers and then freely passed on. They didn’t hide any secrets from me.
19 These are important people in our country! Everyone knows who they are.
20 And they said that an evil man suffers all his life. A cruel man suffers all his numbered years.
21 Every noise scares him. His enemy will attack him when he thinks he is safe.
22 An evil man has no hope of escaping the darkness. There is a sword somewhere waiting to kill him.
23 He wanders from place to place, looking for food. But he knows a dark day is coming, which he brought on himself.
24 He lives in fear, with worry and suffering threatening him like a king ready to attack.