Job 20

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said :

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

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

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

⁵that the exulting of the wicked is short , and the joy of the godless but for a moment ?

⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens , and his head reach to the clouds ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁸He 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 .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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