Job 20

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

²“Therefore my thoughts answer me,
because of my haste within me.

³I hear censure that insults me,
and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

⁴Do you not know this from of old,
since man was placed on earth,

⁵ that the exulting of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

⁶ Though his height mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach to the clouds,

⁷he will perish forever like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

⁸He will fly away like a dream and not be found;
he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹ The eye that saw him will see him no more,
nor will his place any more behold him.

¹⁰His children will seek the favor of the poor,
and his hands will give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of his youthful vigor,
but it will lie down with him in the dust.

¹²“Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
though he hides it under his tongue,

¹³though he is loath to let it go
and holds it in his mouth,

¹⁴yet his food is turned in his stomach;
it is the venom of cobras within him.

¹⁵He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;
God casts them out of his belly.

¹⁶He will suck the poison of cobras;
the tongue of a viper will kill him.

¹⁷He will not look upon the rivers,
the streams flowing with honey and curds.

¹⁸He will give back the fruit of his toil
and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of his trading
he will get no enjoyment.

¹⁹For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;
he has seized a house that he did not build.

²⁰“Because he knew no contentment in his belly,
he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

²¹There was nothing left after he had eaten;
therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²²In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;
the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

²³To fill his belly to the full,
God will send his burning anger against him
and rain it upon him into his body.

²⁴ He will flee from an iron weapon;
a bronze arrow will strike him through.

²⁵It is drawn forth and comes out of his body;
the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder;
terrors come upon him.

²⁶Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;
a fire not fanned will devour him;
what is left in his tent will be consumed.

²⁷ The heavens will reveal his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The possessions of his house will be carried away,
dragged off in the day of God’s wrath.

²⁹ This is the wicked man’s portion from God,
the heritage decreed for him by God.”

source