Job 20

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered by saying:

And Zophar the Naamathite answers and says:

2 In response, various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind moves quickly through different ideas.

“Therefore my thoughts cause me to answer, And because of my sensations in me.

3 The teaching you use to admonish me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding will respond for me.

I hear the discipline of my shame, And the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer:

4 This, I know, is from the beginning, from the time that man was set over the earth:

Have you known this from antiquity? Since the placing of man on earth?

5 that the praise of the impious shall be short, and the joy of the hypocrite lasts only a moment.

That the singing of the wicked [is] short, And the joy of the profane for a moment,

6 If his pride ascends even towards the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,

Though his excellence goes up to the heavens, He strikes his head against a cloud—

7 in the end, he will be destroyed like a trash heap, and those who had seen him will say: “Where is he?”

He perishes as his own dung forever, His beholders say, Where [is] he?

8 Like a dream that flies away, he will not be found; he will pass away like a nightmare.

He flees as a dream, and they do not find him, And he is driven away as a vision of the night,

9 The eyes that had seen him, will not see him; no longer will his own place admire him.

The eye has not seen him, and does not add. And his place does not behold him again.

10 His sons will be worn away by poverty, and his own hands will deliver his grief to him.

His sons oppress the poor, And his hands give back his wealth.

11 His bones will be filled with the vices of his youth, and they will sleep with him in the dust.

His bones have been full of his youth, and it lies down with him on the dust.

12 For, when evil will be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.

Though he sweetens evil in his mouth, hides it under his tongue,

13 He will permit it, and not abandon it, and he will conceal it in his throat.

has pity on it, and does not forsake it, and keeps it back in the midst of his palate,

14 His bread in his belly will be turned into the venom of snakes within him.

his food is turned in his bowels, the bitterness of cobras [is] in his heart.

15 The riches that he devours, he will vomit up, and from his stomach God will draw them out.

He has swallowed wealth, and vomits it. God drives it out from his belly.

16 He will suck the head of snakes, and the tongue of the viper will kill him.

He sucks [the] gall of cobras, the tongue of a viper slays him.

17 (May he never see the streams of the river, the torrents of honey and butter.)

He does not look on streams, Flowing of brooks of honey and butter.

18 He will be repaid for all he has done, yet he will not be consumed; according to the multitude of his schemes, so also will he suffer.

He is giving back [what] he labored for, and does not consume [it]; As a bulwark [is] his exchange, and he does not exult.

19 For, having broken in, he stripped the poor. He has quickly stolen away a house he did not build.

For he oppressed—he forsook the poor, He has taken a house away violently, And he does not build it.

20 And yet his stomach will not be satisfied, and when he has the things he desires, he will not be able to possess them.

For he has not known ease in his belly. With his desirable thing he does not deliver himself.

21 Nothing remained of his portion, and, because of this, nothing will continue of his kind.

There is not a remnant to his food, Therefore his good does not stay.

22 When he will be satisfied, he will be constrained; he will seethe, and all anguish will fall upon him.

In the fullness of his sufficiency he is constricted. Every perverse hand meets him.

23 May his stomach be filled, so that God may send forth the fury of his wrath to him and may rain down his battle upon him.

It comes to pass, at the filling of his belly, He sends forth against him The fierceness of His anger, Indeed, He rains on him in his eating.

24 He will flee from weapons of iron, and he will fall in an arc of brass,

He flees from an iron weapon, A bow of bronze passes through him.

25 which had been drawn and had issued forth from its sheath, glittering in its bitterness: the horrible ones will go forth and approach over him.

One has drawn, And it comes out from the body, And a glittering weapon proceeds from his gall. Terrors [are] on him.

26 All darkness has been hidden in his secrecy. A fire that has not been set will devour him; he will be thrown down and forsaken in his tabernacle.

All darkness is hid for his treasures, A fire not blown consumes him, The remnant is broken in his tent.

27 The heavens will reveal his sinfulness, and the earth will rise up against him.

The heavens reveal his iniquity, And earth is raising itself against him.

28 The offspring of his house will be exposed; he will be pulled down in the day of God’s wrath.

The increase of his house is removed, Poured forth in a day of His anger.

29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his words from the Lord.

This [is] the portion of a wicked man from God. And an inheritance appointed him by God.”