Job 20

1 Then Sophar the Naamathite answered, and said:

And Zophar the Naamathite answers and says:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He perishes as his own dung forever, His beholders 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 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, shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more behold him.

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

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

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

11 His bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth, and they shall 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 shall 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 spare it, and not leave it, and will hide 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 shall be turned into the gall of asps within him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

He does not look on streams, Flowing of 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.

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 Because he broke in and stripped the poor: he hath violently taken away a house which 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 belly was not filled: and when he hath the things he coveted, he shall 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 There was nothing left of his meat, and therefore nothing shall continue of his goods:

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

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 is constricted. Every perverse hand meets 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.

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

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

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.

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

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

The heavens reveal his iniquity, And earth is raising itself 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 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 doings from the Lord.

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