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20:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
20:2  This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset!
20:3  I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my understanding makes me reply.
20:4  Don’t you know that ever since antiquity, from the time a human was placed on earth,
20:5  the joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?
20:6  Though his arrogance reaches heaven, and his head touches the clouds,
20:7  he will vanish forever like his own dung. Those who know him will ask, “Where is he?”
20:8  He will fly away like a dream and never be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
20:9  The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his household will no longer see him.
20:10  His children will beg from the poor, for his own hands must give back his wealth.
20:11  His frame may be full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in dust.
20:12  Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
20:13  though he cherishes it and will not let it go but keeps it in his mouth,
20:14  yet the food in his stomach turns into cobras’ venom inside him.
20:15  He swallows wealth but must vomit it up; God will force it from his stomach.
20:16  He will suck the poison of cobras; a viper’s fangs will kill him.
20:17  He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and curds.
20:18  He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.
20:19  For he oppressed and abandoned the poor; he seized a house he did not build.
20:20  Because his appetite is never satisfied, he does not let anything he desires escape.
20:21  Nothing is left for him to consume; therefore, his prosperity will not last.
20:22  At the height of his success distress will come to him; the full weight of misery will crush him.
20:23  When he fills his stomach, God will send his burning anger against him, raining it down on him while he is eating.
20:24  If he flees from an iron weapon, an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.
20:25  He pulls it out of his back, the flashing tip out of his liver. Terrors come over him.
20:26  Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned by human hands will consume him; it will feed on what is left in his tent.
20:27  The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
20:28  The possessions in his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s anger.
20:29  This is the wicked person’s lot from God, the inheritance God ordained for him.