Job20

¹ Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

² Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.

³ I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

⁴ Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth,

⁵ that the exulting 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 to the clouds,

⁷ he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, Where is he?

⁸ He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹ The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.

¹⁰ His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.

¹¹ His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will down with him in the dust.

¹² Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,

¹³ though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth,

¹⁴ yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him.

¹⁵ He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.

¹⁶ He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him.

¹⁷ He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.

¹⁸ He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment.

¹⁹ For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.

²⁰ Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

²¹ There was nothing left after he had eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²² In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

²³ To fill his belly to the full, God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body.

²⁴ He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through.

²⁵ It is drawn forth and comes out of his body; the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder; terrors come upon him.

²⁶ Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.

²⁷ The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸ The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God’s wrath.

²⁹ This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.