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20:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
20:2  “Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
20:3  I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
20:4  Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth,
20:5  that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
20:6  Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
20:7  he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
20:8  He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
20:9  The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.
20:10  His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.
20:11  His bones are 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 is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth,
20:14  yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him.
20:15  He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.
20:16  He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him.
20:17  He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.
20:18  He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment.
20:19  For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.
20:20  “Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
20:21  There was nothing left after he had eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure.
20:22  In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
20:23  To fill his belly to the full, God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body.
20:24  He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through.
20:25  It is drawn forth and comes out of his body; the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder; terrors come upon him.
20:26  Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.
20:27  The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
20:28  The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God’s wrath.
20:29  This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.”