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20. Zophar Replies

    ² “My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer
   because I am greatly disturbed.
³ I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
   and my understanding inspires me to reply.

    ⁴ “Surely you know how it has been from of old,
   ever since mankind Or Adam was placed on the earth,
⁵ that the mirth of the wicked is brief,
   the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
⁶ Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens
   and his head touches the clouds,
⁷ he will perish forever, like his own dung;
   those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
⁸ Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,
   banished like a vision of the night.
⁹ The eye that saw him will not see him again;
   his place will look on him no more.
¹⁰ His children must make amends to the poor;
   his own hands must give back his wealth.
¹¹ The youthful vigor that fills his bones
   will lie with him in the dust.

    ¹² “Though evil is sweet in his mouth
   and he hides it under his tongue,
¹³ though he cannot bear to let it go
   and lets it linger in his mouth,
¹⁴ yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
   it will become the venom of serpents within him.
¹⁵ He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
   God will make his stomach vomit them up.
¹⁶ He will suck the poison of serpents;
   the fangs of an adder will kill him.
¹⁷ He will not enjoy the streams,
   the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
¹⁸ What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;
   he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
¹⁹ For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute;
   he has seized houses he did not build.

    ²⁰ “Surely he will have no respite from his craving;
   he cannot save himself by his treasure.
²¹ Nothing is left for him to devour;
   his prosperity will not endure.
²² In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him;
   the full force of misery will come upon him.
²³ When he has filled his belly,
   God will vent his burning anger against him
   and rain down his blows on him.
²⁴ Though he flees from an iron weapon,
   a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
²⁵ He pulls it out of his back,
   the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;
    ²⁶ total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
   and devour what is left in his tent.
²⁷ The heavens will expose his guilt;
   the earth will rise up against him.
²⁸ A flood will carry off his house,
   rushing waters Or The possessions in his house will be carried off, / washed away on the day of God’s wrath.
²⁹ Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
   the heritage appointed for them by God.”