Job 20

¹Then Zophar the Naʹamathite answered:

²“Therefore my thoughts answer me,

because of my haste within me.

³I hear censure which insults me,

and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

⁴Do you not know this from of old,

since man was placed upon 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 for ever 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 which 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 youthful vigor,

but it will lie down with him in the dust.

¹²“Though wickedness 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 gall of asps within him.

¹⁵He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;

God casts them out of his belly.

¹⁶He will suck the poison of asps;

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 which he did not build.

²⁰“Because his greed knew no rest,

he will not save anything in which he delights.

²¹There was nothing left after he had eaten;

therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²²In the fulness of his sufficiency he will be in straits;

all the force of misery will come upon him.

²³To fill his belly to the full

God will send his fierce anger into him,

and rain it upon him as his food.

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 gall;

terrors come upon him.

²⁶Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;

a fire not blown upon 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.”