Job
20
- Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
- "My troubled thoughts prompt me to
answer because I am greatly disturbed.
- I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my
understanding inspires me to reply.
- "Surely you know how it has been from
of old, ever since man was placed on the earth,
- that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the
joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
- Though his pride reaches to the heavens
and his head touches the clouds,
- he will perish forever, like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he ?'
- Like a dream he flies away, no more to be
found, banished like a vision of the night.
- The eye that saw him will not see him again;
his place will look on him no more.
- His children must make amends to the poor;
his own hands must give back his wealth.
- The youthful vigor that fills his bones
will lie with him in the dust.
- "Though evil is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
- though he cannot bear to let it go and keeps
it in his mouth,
- yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
it will become the venom of serpents within him.
- He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
God will make his stomach vomit them up.
- He will suck the poison of serpents; the
fangs of an adder will kill him.
- He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers
flowing with honey and cream.
- What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;
he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
- For he has oppressed the poor and left them
destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.
- "Surely he will have no respite from
his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure.
- Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity
will not endure.
- In the midst of his plenty, distress will
overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him.
- When he has filled his belly, God will vent
his burning anger against him and rain down his blows upon him.
- Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped
arrow pierces him.
- He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming
point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him;
- total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
- The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth
will rise up against him.
- A flood will carry off his house, rushing
waters on the day of God's wrath.
- Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
the heritage appointed for them by God."
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