Job - Chapter 20 | New International Version

  • 1. Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
  • 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 man 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 his pride 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 keeps it 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 upon 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 on the day of God's wrath.
  • 29. Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God."
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