Job 20

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,⋮

2 “Therefore my thoughts answer me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.⋮

3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.⋮

4 Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,⋮

5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?⋮

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

7 yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’⋮

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.⋮

9 The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more.⋮

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

11 His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust.⋮

12 “Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,⋮

13 though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth,⋮

14 yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.⋮

15 He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.⋮

16 He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him.⋮

17 He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.⋮

18 He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten.⋮

19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up.⋮

20 “Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights.⋮

21 There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure.⋮

22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him.⋮

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.⋮

24 He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through.⋮

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.⋮

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.⋮

27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him.⋮

28 The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath.⋮

29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”⋮