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20:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
20:2  So now my thoughts provide an answer for me, because of the feelings within me.
20:3  A rebuke that puts me to shame I hear, and from my understanding a spirit gives me a reply.
20:4  Do you not know this: from of old, since human beings were placed upon the earth,
20:5  The triumph of the wicked is short and the joy of the impious but for a moment?
20:6  Though his pride mount up to the heavens and his head reach to the clouds,
20:7  Yet he perishes forever like the dung he uses for fuel, and onlookers say, “Where is he?”
20:8  Like a dream he takes flight and cannot be found; he fades away like a vision of the night.
20:9  The eye which saw him does so no more; nor shall his dwelling again behold him.
20:10  His sons will restore to the poor, and his hands will yield up his riches.
20:11  Though his bones are full of youthful vigor, it shall lie with him in the dust.
20:12  Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, and he hides it under his tongue,
20:13  Though he retains it and will not let it go but keeps it still within his mouth,
20:14  Yet in his stomach the food shall turn; it shall be venom of asps inside him.
20:15  The riches he swallowed he shall vomit up; God shall make his belly disgorge them.
20:16  The poison of asps he shall drink in; the viper’s fangs shall slay him.
20:17  He shall see no streams of oil, no torrents of honey or milk.
20:18  He shall give back his gains, never used; like his profit from trade, never enjoyed.
20:19  Because he has oppressed and neglected the poor, and stolen a house he did not build;
20:20  For he has known no quiet in his greed, in his treasure he cannot save himself.
20:21  None of his survivors will consume it, therefore his prosperity shall not endure.
20:22  When he has more than enough, distress shall be his, every sort of trouble shall come upon him.
20:23  When he has filled his belly, God shall send against him the fury of his wrath and rain down his missiles upon him.
20:24  Should he escape an iron weapon, a bronze bow shall pierce him through;
20:25  The dart shall come out of his back, a shining point out of his gall-bladder: terrors fall upon him.
20:26  Complete darkness is in store for his treasured ones; a fire unfanned shall consume him; any survivor in his tent shall be destroyed.
20:27  The heavens shall reveal his guilt, and the earth rise up against him.
20:28  The flood shall sweep away his house, torrents in the day of God’s anger.
20:29  This is the portion of the wicked, the heritage appointed him by God.