Job 20 ⓘ
20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,
20:2 “Therefore my thoughts answer me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.
20:3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.
20:4 Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,
20:5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?
20:6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
20:7 yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
20:8 He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
20:9 The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more.
20:10 His children will seek the favour of the poor. His hands will give back his wealth.
20:11 His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust.
20:12 “Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,
20:13 though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth,
20:14 yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.
20:15 He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
20:16 He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him.
20:17 He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
20:18 He will restore that for which he laboured, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten.
20:19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up.
20:20 “Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights.
20:21 There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure.
20:22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him.
20:23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.
20:24 He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through.
20:25 He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.
20:26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent.
20:27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him.
20:28 The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath.
20:29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”