Home Master Index
←Prev   Job 20 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


20:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite responded and said:
20:2  “In truth, my troubled thoughts urge me to answer because of my feelings within me.
20:3  I hear a rebuke that dishonors me and my understanding inspires me to reply.
20:4  Do you not know that it has been from old, since mankind was put on earth,
20:5  that the triumph of the wicked is short and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
20:6  Though his pride reaches to the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
20:7  he perishes forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
20:8  Like a dream, he flies away and they cannot find him; like a vision of the night, he is chased away.
20:9  The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more.
20:10  His children must recompense the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth.
20:11  His bones were full of his youthful vigor but it will lie down with him in the dust.
20:12  Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,
20:13  though he cannot bear to let it go and holds it in his mouth,
20:14  his food turns sour in his stomach; it becomes the venom of serpents within him.
20:15  He swallows riches and vomits them up; God empties it out of his stomach.
20:16  He sucks the poison of serpents; fangs of a viper kill him.
20:17  He will not look at streams, rivers flowing with honey and butter.
20:18  He gives back what he toiled for without swallowing it; he will not enjoy the riches of his trade.
20:19  For he has oppressed and abandoned the poor. He has seized a house he did not build.
20:20  For he knows no satisfaction from his greed, he cannot save himself by his desires.
20:21  Nothing remains for him to devour; therefore his prosperity will not last.
20:22  In the fullness of his plenty, he will be distressed; the full force of misery will come upon him.
20:23  While he is filling his belly, He will send the anger of His wrath against him, and rain it down it on him, on his flesh.
20:24  Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze bow pierces him through.
20:25  He pulls and it comes out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors come upon him!
20:26  Total darkness waits for his treasures; A fire not fanned will devour him; it will consume what is left in his tent.
20:27  The heavens will expose his iniquity; the earth will rise up against him.
20:28  A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of His wrath.
20:29  Such is the wicked man’s lot from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”