Job 20

1 And Zophar the Naamathite answers and says:

Then Sophar the Naamathite answered, and said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

23 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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