Job 20

1 Then Sophar the Naamathite answered, and said:

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

2 Therefore various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind is hurried away to different things.

Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.

3 The doctrine with which thou reprovest me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding shall answer for me.

I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer.

4 This I know from the beginning, since man was placed upon the earth,

Know you not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

5 That the praise of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.

That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

6 If his pride mount up even to heaven, and his head touch the clouds:

Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

7 In the end he shall be destroyed like a dunghill, and they that has seen him shall say: Where is he?

Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

8 As a dream that fleeth away he shall not be found, he shall pass as a vision of the night:

He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

9 The eyes that had seen him, shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more behold him.

The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

10 His children shall be oppressed with want, and his hands shall render him his sorrow.

His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

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

His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

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

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

13 He will spare it, and not leave it, and will hide it in his throat.

Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

14 His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within him.

Yet his food in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

15 The riches which he hath swallowed; he shall vomit up, and God shall draw them out of his belly.

He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.

16 He shall suck the head of asps, and the viper’s tongue shall kill him.

He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.

17 (Let him not see the streams of the river, the brooks of honey and of butter.)

He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

18 He shall be punished for all that he did, and yet shall not be consumed: according to the multitude of his devices so also shall he suffer.

That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

19 Because he broke in and stripped the poor: he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.

Because he has oppressed and has forsaken the poor; because he has violently taken away an house which he built not;

20 And yet his belly was not filled: and when he hath the things he coveted, he shall not be able to possess them.

Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

21 There was nothing left of his meat, and therefore nothing shall continue of his goods:

There shall none of his food be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

22 When he shall be filled, he shall be straitened, he shall burn, and every sorrow shall fall upon him.

In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

23 May his belly be filled, that God may send forth the wrath of his indignation upon him, and rain down his war upon him.

When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

24 He shall flee from weapons of iron, and shall fall upon a bow of brass.

He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

25 The sword is drawn out, and cometh forth from its scabbard, and glittereth in his bitterness: the terrible ones shall go and come upon him.

It is drawn, and comes out of the body; yea, the glittering sword comes out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

26 All darkness is hid in his secret places: a fire that is not kindled shall devour him, he shall be afflicted when left in his tabernacle.

All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him.

The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

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

The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

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

This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.