Job 20

1 Then Sophar the Naamathite answered, and said:

Then Zophar replied,

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

“I am very perturbed about what you have said, so I want to reply very quickly.

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

By saying these things you have insulted me, but I know how (OR, because I understand very much) I can reply to you.

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

“Do you not know that from long ago, ever since people were first put on the earth,

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

wicked people [like you] do not continue to rejoice for a long time, ungodly people are happy only for a (moment/very short time) [HYP]?

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

[Even] though their reputation/pride reaches up to the sky and their fame goes up as high as the clouds,

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

they will disappear forever, like their own dung, and those who knew them will ask, ‘(Where did they go/What happened to them)?’

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

They will be forgotten like [SIM] a dream is, and they will exist no more. They will vanish, like visions [that people see] during the night.

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

Those who saw those people previously will never see them again; even their families [MTY] will not see them any more.

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

Their children will be forced to return the valuable things that those children stole from poor people [DOU].

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

Previously their bodies were young and strong, but they will die and [their bodies will] be buried in the ground.

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

“Doing wicked things was like having sweet food in their mouths, and they wanted to continue to taste it.

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

And they did not want to stop doing those things,

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

[but some day] the evil things that they enjoyed doing will become like food [that they swallow] [and which becomes] as bitter as snake venom.

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

Wicked people will not continue to keep the money they have accumulated, like people do not keep the food that they vomit. God takes their wealth from them.

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

What wicked people do is [like] [MET] swallowing snake venom; it will kill them like [MET] the bite of a poisonous snake kills people.

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

They will not remain alive to see abundant blessings [IDM] [from God], milk and olive oil and honey, that are [so abundant they are] like [MET] a stream that flows by.

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.

They will be forced to give back the things that they stole from the poor; they will not be able to continue to enjoy those things. They will not remain happy because of what they got from their businesses,

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

because they oppressed poor people and refused to help them, and they took other people’s houses [by cheating them].

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

“They were always greedy and never satisfied. They just keep dreaming about owning more and more things.

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

When they finished eating their food, there was never anything left over [because they had greedily eaten it all]; but now their prosperity will end.

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

When they are extremely prosperous/wealthy, they will suddenly experience a lot of trouble. (Misery will strike them and crush them [PRS]/They will suffer very greatly).

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 the wicked people are filling their stomachs, God will show that he is very angry with them and punish them; the punishment [that he gives them] will be like [MET] rain falling on them.

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

They will try to escape from [being killed by] iron weapons, but arrows with bronze points will pierce them.

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.

The arrows will [go completely through their bodies and] stick out of their backs; the shiny points of the arrows will have blood dripping from them, and those wicked people will be terrified.

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.

Their valuable possessions will all be destroyed; a fire that is not lit by humans, [but by God, ] will burn them up and also destroy the things that are left in their tents.

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

The [angels in] heaven [MTY] will reveal the sins that those wicked people have committed, and [people on] earth will stand up and testify against them.

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

When God punishes [MTY] [people], all the possessions in the wicked people’s houses will be carried away by a flood.

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

That is what will happen to wicked people [like you]; that is what God has decided will happen to them.”