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20:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,
20:2  “Therefore my disquieting thoughts bring me back for the sake of my inward excitement.
20:3  I hear discipline that insults me, and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.
20:4  “Did you know this from of old, since the setting of the human being on earth,
20:5  that the rejoicing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment?
20:6  Even though his stature mounts up to the heaven, and his head reaches to the clouds,
20:7  he will perish forever like his dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
20:8  He will fly away like a dream, and they will not find him, and he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
20:9  The eye that saw him will not see him again, and his place will no longer behold him.
20:10  His children will seek favors from the poor, and his hands will return his wealth.
20:11  His bones were full of his vigor, but it will lie down with him on the dust.
20:12  “Though wickedness tastes sweet in his mouth, and he hides it under his tongue,
20:13  though he spares it and does not let it go and holds it back in the midst of his palate,
20:14  in his bowels his food is turned, the venom of horned vipers is within him.
20:15  He swallows riches, but he vomits them up; God drives them out from his stomach.
20:16  He will suck the poison of horned vipers; the viper’s tongue will kill him.
20:17  He will not enjoy the streams, the torrents of honey and curds.
20:18  Returning the products of his toil, he will not swallow; according to the profit of his trade, he will not enjoy,
20:19  for he has oppressed; he has abandoned the poor; he has seized a house but did not build it.
20:20  Because he has not known satisfaction in his stomach, he lets nothing escape that he desires.
20:21  There is nothing left after he has eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure.
20:22  In the fullness of his excess he will be in distress; all of misery’s power will come upon him.
20:23  When his stomach fills up, God will send his burning anger upon him, and he will let it rain down upon him as his food.
20:24  “He will flee from an iron weapon, but an arrow of bronze will pierce him.
20:25  He draws it forth, and it comes out from his body, and the glittering point comes from his gall-bladder; terrors come upon him.
20:26  Total darkness is hidden for his treasures; an unfanned fire will devour him; the remnant will be consumed in his tent.
20:27  The heavens will reveal his guilt, and the earth will rise up against him.
20:28  The products of his house will be carried away like gushing waters on the day of his wrath.
20:29  This is a wicked human being’s portion from God and the inheritance of his decree from God.”