Psalms 37:35

³I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

⁷“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power? ⁸Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes. ⁹Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. ¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry. ¹¹They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance. ¹²They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. ¹³They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.^14[+] They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways. ¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’ ¹⁶Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me. ¹⁷“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?

³For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. ⁴For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. ⁵They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men. ⁶Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment. ⁷Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit. ⁸They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression. ⁹They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. ¹⁰Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance. ¹¹They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

⁶All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs. Under its branches, all the animals of the field gave birth to their young. All great nations lived under its shadow. ⁷Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters. ⁸The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it. The cypress trees were not like its branches. The pine trees were not like its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty. ⁹I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.’

¹⁰“Therefore thus said the Lord GOD: ‘Because he is exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick branches, and his heart is lifted up in his height,

¹⁸“‘To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. “‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord GOD.”

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!” ¹⁵Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,^[+] to the depths of the pit. ¹⁶Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms, ¹⁷who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”

¹⁸All the kings of the nations sleep in glory, everyone in his own house. ¹⁹But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man will perish, ¹⁴whose confidence will break apart, whose trust is a spider’s web. ¹⁵He will lean on his house, but it will not stand. He will cling to it, but it will not endure. ¹⁶He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden. ¹⁷His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones. ¹⁸If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’ ¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way. Out of the earth, others will spring.

¹¹Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.

²⁰The tree that you saw, which grew and was strong, whose height reached to the sky and its sight to all the earth; ²¹whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit plentiful, and in it was food for all; under which the animals of the field lived, and on whose branches the birds of the sky had their habitation— ²²it is you, O king, that have grown and become strong; for your greatness has grown, and reaches to the sky, and your dominion to the end of the earth.

²³“Whereas the king saw a holy watcher coming down from the sky and saying, ‘Cut down the tree, and destroy it; nevertheless leave the stump of its roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew of the sky. Let his portion be with the animals of the field, until seven times pass over him.’

²⁴“This is the interpretation, O king, and it is the decree of the Most High, which has come on my lord the king: ²⁵You will be driven from men and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You will be made to eat grass as oxen, and will be wet with the dew of the sky, and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will. ²⁶Whereas it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be sure to you after you know that Heaven rules. ²⁷Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your tranquility.”

²⁸All this came on the King Nebuchadnezzar. ²⁹At the end of twelve months he was walking in the royal palace of Babylon. ³⁰The king spoke and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”

³¹While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from the sky, saying, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: ‘The kingdom has departed from you. ³²You shall be driven from men, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like oxen. Seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will.’”

³³This was fulfilled the same hour on Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; and his body was wet with the dew of the sky until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.