Job 20
1 And Zophar the Naamathite answers and says:
Then Zophar replied,
2 “Therefore my thoughts cause me to answer, And because of my sensations in me.
“I am very perturbed about what you have said, so I want to reply very quickly.
3 I hear the discipline of my shame, And the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer:
By saying these things you have insulted me, but I know how (OR, because I understand very much) I can reply to you.
4 Have you known this from antiquity? Since the placing of man on earth?
“Do you not know that from long ago, ever since people were first put on the earth,
5 That the singing of the wicked [is] short, And the joy of the profane 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 Though his excellence goes up to the heavens, He strikes his head against a cloud—
[Even] though their reputation/pride reaches up to the sky and their fame goes up as high as the clouds,
7 He perishes as his own dung forever, His beholders 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 He flees as a dream, and they do not find him, And he is driven away 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 eye has not seen him, and does not add. And his place does not behold him again.
Those who saw those people previously will never see them again; even their families [MTY] will not see them any more.
10 His sons oppress the poor, And his hands give back his wealth.
Their children will be forced to return the valuable things that those children stole from poor people [DOU].
11 His bones have been full of his youth, and it lies down with him on the dust.
Previously their bodies were young and strong, but they will die and [their bodies will] be buried in the ground.
12 Though he sweetens evil in his mouth, hides it under his tongue,
“Doing wicked things was like having sweet food in their mouths, and they wanted to continue to taste it.
13 has pity on it, and does not forsake it, and keeps it back in the midst of his palate,
And they did not want to stop doing those things,
14 his food is turned in his bowels, the bitterness of cobras [is] in his heart.
[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 He has swallowed wealth, and vomits it. God drives it out from 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 sucks [the] gall of cobras, the tongue of a viper slays 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 He does not look on streams, Flowing of brooks of honey and 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 is giving back [what] he labored for, and does not consume [it]; As a bulwark [is] his exchange, and he does not exult.
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 For he oppressed—he forsook the poor, He has taken a house away violently, And he does not build it.
because they oppressed poor people and refused to help them, and they took other people’s houses [by cheating them].
20 For he has not known ease in his belly. With his desirable thing he does not deliver himself.
“They were always greedy and never satisfied. They just keep dreaming about owning more and more things.
21 There is not a remnant to his food, Therefore his good does not stay.
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 In the fullness of his sufficiency he is constricted. Every perverse hand meets 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 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.
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 flees from an iron weapon, A bow of bronze passes through him.
They will try to escape from [being killed by] iron weapons, but arrows with bronze points will pierce them.
25 One has drawn, And it comes out from the body, And a glittering weapon proceeds from his gall. Terrors [are] on 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 for his treasures, A fire not blown consumes him, The remnant is broken in his tent.
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 reveal his iniquity, And earth is raising itself 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 increase of his house is removed, Poured forth in a day of His anger.
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 an inheritance appointed him by God.”
That is what will happen to wicked people [like you]; that is what God has decided will happen to them.”
