Job 20

New International Version

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

New International Version