Job 20
1 Then Zophar replied,
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered by saying:
2 “I am very perturbed about what you have said, so I want to reply very quickly.
In response, various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind moves quickly through different ideas.
3 By saying these things you have insulted me, but I know how (OR, because I understand very much) I can reply to you.
The teaching you use to admonish me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding will respond for me.
4 “Do you not know that from long ago, ever since people were first put on the earth,
This, I know, is from the beginning, from the time that man was set over 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]?
that the praise of the impious shall be short, and the joy of the hypocrite lasts only a moment.
6 [Even] though their reputation/pride reaches up to the sky and their fame goes up as high as the clouds,
If his pride ascends even towards the heavens, and his head touches 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)?’
in the end, he will be destroyed like a trash heap, and those who had seen him will say: “Where is he?”
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.
Like a dream that flies away, he will not be found; he will pass away like a nightmare.
9 Those who saw those people previously will never see them again; even their families [MTY] will not see them any more.
The eyes that had seen him, will not see him; no longer will his own place admire him.
10 Their children will be forced to return the valuable things that those children stole from poor people [DOU].
His sons will be worn away by poverty, and his own hands will deliver his grief to him.
11 Previously their bodies were young and strong, but they will die and [their bodies will] be buried in the ground.
His bones will be filled with the vices of his youth, and they will sleep with him in the dust.
12 “Doing wicked things was like having sweet food in their mouths, and they wanted to continue to taste it.
For, when evil will be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.
13 And they did not want to stop doing those things,
He will permit it, and not abandon it, and he will conceal it in his throat.
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.
His bread in his belly will be turned into the venom of snakes within him.
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.
The riches that he devours, he will vomit up, and from his stomach God will draw them out.
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.
He will suck the head of snakes, and the tongue of the viper will kill him.
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.
(May he never see the streams of the river, the torrents of honey and butter.)
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,
He will be repaid for all he has done, yet he will not be consumed; according to the multitude of his schemes, so also will he suffer.
19 because they oppressed poor people and refused to help them, and they took other people’s houses [by cheating them].
For, having broken in, he stripped the poor. He has quickly stolen away a house he did not build.
20 “They were always greedy and never satisfied. They just keep dreaming about owning more and more things.
And yet his stomach will not be satisfied, and when he has the things he desires, he will not be able to possess them.
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.
Nothing remained of his portion, and, because of this, nothing will continue of his kind.
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).
When he will be satisfied, he will be constrained; he will seethe, and all anguish will fall upon him.
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.
May his stomach be filled, so that God may send forth the fury of his wrath to him and may rain down his battle upon him.
24 They will try to escape from [being killed by] iron weapons, but arrows with bronze points will pierce them.
He will flee from weapons of iron, and he will fall in an arc of brass,
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.
which had been drawn and had issued forth from its sheath, glittering in its bitterness: the horrible ones will go forth and approach over him.
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.
All darkness has been hidden in his secrecy. A fire that has not been set will devour him; he will be thrown down and forsaken in his tabernacle.
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.
The heavens will reveal his sinfulness, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 When God punishes [MTY] [people], all the possessions in the wicked people’s houses will be carried away by a flood.
The offspring of his house will be exposed; he will be pulled down in the day of God’s wrath.
29 That is what will happen to wicked people [like you]; that is what God has decided will happen to them.”
This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his words from the Lord.
