Chapter 20

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

²“Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,

Even by reason of my haste that is in me.

³I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame;

The spirit of my understanding answers me.

⁴Don’t you know this from old time,

Since man was placed on earth,

⁵That the triumphing of the wicked is short,

The joy of the godless but for a moment?

⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens,

And his head reach to the clouds,

⁷Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung,

Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’

⁸He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found:

Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹The eye which saw him shall see him no more,

Neither shall his place any more see him.

¹⁰His children shall seek the favor of the poor.

His hands shall give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of his youth,

But youth shall lie down with him in the dust.

¹²“Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth,

Though he hide it under his tongue,

¹³Though he spare it, and will not let it go,

But keep it still within his mouth;

¹⁴Yet his food in his bowels is turned.

It is cobra venom within him.

¹⁵He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again.

God will cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶He shall suck cobra venom.

The viper’s tongue shall kill him.

¹⁷He shall not look at the rivers,

The flowing streams of honey and butter.

¹⁸That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down;

According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.

¹⁹For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor.

He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

²⁰“Because he knew no quietness within him,

He shall not save anything of that in which he delights.

²¹There was nothing left that he didn’t devour,

Therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

²²In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him:

The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.

²³When 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.

²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon.

The bronze arrow shall strike him through.

²⁵He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body.

Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver.

Terrors are on him.

²⁶All darkness is laid up for his treasures.

An unfanned fire shall devour him.

It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

²⁷The heavens shall reveal his iniquity,

The earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸The increase of his house shall depart;

They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God,

The heritage appointed to him by God.”