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20:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
20:2  ‘My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.
20:3  I hear a rebuke that dishonours me, and my understanding inspires me to reply.
20:4  ‘Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since mankind was placed on the earth,
20:5  that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
20:6  Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,
20:7  he will perish for ever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, “Where is he?”
20:8  Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night.
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 make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth.
20:11  The youthful vigour that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.
20:12  ‘Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,
20:13  though he cannot bear to let it go and lets it linger in his mouth,
20:14  yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him.
20:15  He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up.
20:16  He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him.
20:17  He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
20:18  What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
20:19  For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.
20:20  ‘Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure.
20:21  Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure.
20:22  In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him.
20:23  When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows on him.
20:24  Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
20:25  He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him;
20:26  total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
20:27  The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him.
20:28  A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.
20:29  Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.’