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20:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
20:2  “My troubled thoughts cause me to answer, because I am very upset.
20:3  You correct me and I am insulted, but I understand how to answer you.
20:4  “You know how it has been for a long time, ever since people were first put on the earth.
20:5  The happiness of evil people is brief, and the joy of the wicked lasts only a moment.
20:6  Their pride may be as high as the heavens, and their heads may touch the clouds,
20:7  but they will be gone forever, like their own dung. People who knew them will say, ‘Where are they?’
20:8  They will fly away like a dream and not be found again; they will be chased away like a vision in the night.
20:9  Those who saw them will not see them again; the places where they lived will see them no more.
20:10  Their children will have to pay back the poor, and they will have to give up their wealth.
20:11  They had the strength of their youth in their bones, but it will lie with them in the dust of death.
20:12  “Evil may taste sweet in their mouths, and they may hide it under their tongues.
20:13  They cannot stand to let go of it; they keep it in their mouths.
20:14  But their food will turn sour in their stomachs, like the poison of a snake inside them.
20:15  They have swallowed riches, but they will spit them out; God will make them vomit their riches up.
20:16  They will suck the poison of snakes, and the snake’s fangs will kill them.
20:17  They will not admire the sparkling streams or the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
20:18  They must give back what they worked for without eating it; they will not enjoy the money they made from their trading,
20:19  because they troubled the poor and left them with nothing. They have taken houses they did not build.
20:20  “Evil people never lack an appetite, and nothing escapes their selfishness.
20:21  But nothing will be left for them to eat; their riches will not continue.
20:22  When they still have plenty, trouble will catch up to them, and great misery will come down on them.
20:23  When the wicked fill their stomachs, God will send his burning anger against them, and blows of punishment will fall on them like rain.
20:24  The wicked may run away from an iron weapon, but a bronze arrow will stab them.
20:25  They will pull the arrows out of their backs and pull the points out of their livers. Terrors will come over them;
20:26  total darkness waits for their treasure. A fire not fanned by people will destroy them and burn up what is left of their tents.
20:27  The heavens will show their guilt, and the earth will rise up against them.
20:28  A flood will carry their houses away, swept away on the day of God’s anger.
20:29  This is what God plans for evil people; this is what he has decided they will receive.”