Job 20

1 Then Zophar replied,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13 And they did not want to stop doing those things,

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

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

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

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

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