Job - Chapter 20 | English Standard Version

  • 1. Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
  • 2. "Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
  • 3. I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
  • 4. Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth,
  • 5. that the exulting of the wicked is short, and 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. he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'
  • 8. He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
  • 9. The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.
  • 10. His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.
  • 11. His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.
  • 12. "Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,
  • 13. though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth,
  • 14. yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him.
  • 15. He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.
  • 16. He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him.
  • 17. He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.
  • 18. He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment.
  • 19. For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.
  • 20. "Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
  • 21. There was nothing left after he had eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure.
  • 22. In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
  • 23. To fill his belly to the full God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body.
  • 24. He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through.
  • 25. It is drawn forth and comes out of his body; the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder; terrors come upon him.
  • 26. Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.
  • 27. The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
  • 28. The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God's wrath.
  • 29. This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God."
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