Job 20
1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered by saying:
2In response, various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind moves quickly through different ideas.
3The teaching you use to admonish me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding will respond for me.
4This, I know, is from the beginning, from the time that man was set over the earth:
5that the praise of the impious shall be short, and the joy of the hypocrite lasts only a moment.
6If his pride ascends even towards the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
7in the end, he will be destroyed like a trash heap, and those who had seen him will say: “Where is he?”
8Like a dream that flies away, he will not be found; he will pass away like a nightmare.
9The eyes that had seen him, will not see him; no longer will his own place admire him.
10His sons will be worn away by poverty, and his own hands will deliver his grief to him.
11His bones will be filled with the vices of his youth, and they will sleep with him in the dust.
12For, when evil will be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.
13He will permit it, and not abandon it, and he will conceal it in his throat.
14His bread in his belly will be turned into the venom of snakes within him.
15The riches that he devours, he will vomit up, and from his stomach God will draw them out.
16He will suck the head of snakes, and the tongue of the viper will kill him.
17(May he never see the streams of the river, the torrents of honey and butter.)
18He will be repaid for all he has done, yet he will not be consumed; according to the multitude of his schemes, so also will he suffer.
19For, having broken in, he stripped the poor. He has quickly stolen away a house he did not build.
20And yet his stomach will not be satisfied, and when he has the things he desires, he will not be able to possess them.
21Nothing remained of his portion, and, because of this, nothing will continue of his kind.
22When he will be satisfied, he will be constrained; he will seethe, and all anguish will fall upon him.
23May his stomach be filled, so that God may send forth the fury of his wrath to him and may rain down his battle upon him.
24He will flee from weapons of iron, and he will fall in an arc of brass,
25which had been drawn and had issued forth from its sheath, glittering in its bitterness: the horrible ones will go forth and approach over him.
26All darkness has been hidden in his secrecy. A fire that has not been set will devour him; he will be thrown down and forsaken in his tabernacle.
27The heavens will reveal his sinfulness, and the earth will rise up against him.
28The offspring of his house will be exposed; he will be pulled down in the day of God’s wrath.
29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his words from the Lord.
1Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
2Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.
3I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
4Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,
5That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
6Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;
7Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
8He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
9The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
10His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.
11His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
12Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
13Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:
14Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
15He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
16He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
17He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
18That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
19Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
20Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
21There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.
22In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
23When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
24He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
25It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.
26All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.
27The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
28The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.