Study

Zophar Speaks: Wickedness Receives Just Retribution

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Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:

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“Pay attention! My thoughts urge me to answer,

because of the agitation within me.

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I hear censure that insults me,

and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.

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Do you not know this from of old,

ever since mortals were placed on earth,

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that the exulting of the wicked is short,

and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?

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Even though they mount up high as the heavens,

and their head reaches to the clouds,

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they will perish forever like their own dung;

those who have seen them will say, ‘Where are they?’

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They will fly away like a dream, and not be found;

they will be chased away like a vision of the night.

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The eye that saw them will see them no more,

nor will their place behold them any longer.

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Their children will seek the favor of the poor,

and their hands will give back their wealth.

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Their bodies, once full of youth,

will lie down in the dust with them.

 

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“Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth,

though they hide it under their tongues,

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though they are loath to let it go,

and hold it in their mouths,

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yet their food is turned in their stomachs;

it is the venom of asps within them.

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They swallow down riches and vomit them up again;

God casts them out of their bellies.

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They will suck the poison of asps;

the tongue of a viper will kill them.

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They will not look on the rivers,

the streams flowing with honey and curds.

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They will give back the fruit of their toil,

and will not swallow it down;

from the profit of their trading

they will get no enjoyment.

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For they have crushed and abandoned the poor,

they have seized a house that they did not build.

 

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“They knew no quiet in their bellies;

in their greed they let nothing escape.

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There was nothing left after they had eaten;

therefore their prosperity will not endure.

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In full sufficiency they will be in distress;

all the force of misery will come upon them.

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To fill their belly to the full

God will send his fierce anger into them,

and rain it upon them as their food.

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They will flee from an iron weapon;

a bronze arrow will strike them through.

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It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,

and the glittering point comes out of their gall;

terrors come upon them.

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Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;

a fire fanned by no one will devour them;

what is left in their tent will be consumed.

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The heavens will reveal their iniquity,

and the earth will rise up against them.

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The possessions of their house will be carried away,

dragged off in the day of God’s wrath.

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This is the portion of the wicked from God,

the heritage decreed for them by God.”