Job 20

¹ Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

² Therefore my troubled thoughts compel me to answer,
because of the turmoil within me.

³ I hear a reproof that dishonors 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 triumph of the wicked is short
and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?

⁶ Though his arrogance mounts up to the heavens
and his head reaches 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 glimpsed him will do so no more;
his place will not look on him again.

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

¹¹ His bones are full of the vigor of his youth,
but it will lie 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 turns 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 sucks the poison of cobras;
the tongue of the viper kills him.

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

¹⁸ He gives back what he labored for unsatisfied;
he will not enjoy the profit from his commerce.

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

²⁰ Because his appetite knew no rest,
he will not save anything in which he delights.

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

²² When he has filled himself to the full,
distress will come upon him;
the full force of misery will come upon him.

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

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

²⁵ He draws it out and it comes through his back;
the glittering point comes through his gall.
Terrors come upon him.

²⁶ Utter darkness is reserved 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 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.