Traditional belief

¹Zophar from Naamah said:

²Therefore, my troubled thoughts make me turn back—

because of my inner turmoil.

³I hear teaching that insults me,

but I am forced to answer based on my own understanding.

⁴Do you know this from long ago—

⁵that the rejoicing of the wicked is short,

⁶Though their height reaches heaven

and their heads touch the clouds,

⁷they will perish forever like their dung;

those who saw them will say, “Where are they?”

⁸They will disappear like a dream,

carried away like a nighttime vision.

⁹The eye that saw them will do so no more;

they won’t be seen again at home.

¹⁰Their children will repay the poor;

their hands will give back their wealth.

¹¹Vigor filled their bones

and now sleeps with them in the dust.

¹²Though wickedness is sweet in their mouths,

they hide it under their tongues;

¹³they like it, won’t let it go;

they hold it in their cheeks.

¹⁴Food turns their stomachs,

becoming a cobra’s poison inside.

¹⁵They swallow wealth and vomit it;

God dislodges it from their belly.

¹⁶They suck cobra’s poison;

a viper’s tongue kills them.

¹⁷They won’t experience streams,

rivers of honey, and brooks of cream.

¹⁸They won’t receive the reward for their labor;

they won’t enjoy the wealth from their business.

¹⁹They crushed and abandoned the poor;

stole a house they didn’t build;

²⁰didn’t know contentment in their belly;

couldn’t escape with their treasure.

²¹Nothing remained of their food,

so their riches will not endure.

²²Even in their plenty, they are hard-pressed;

all sorts of trouble come on them.

²³Let God fill their belly,[#20.23 Or him]

unleash his burning anger on them,

rain punishing blows on them.

²⁴If they flee an iron weapon,

a bronze bow pierces them.

²⁵They pull it out, but it sticks out from their backs;

its shaft in their liver brings terror.

²⁶Complete darkness waits for their treasured possessions;

fire that no one stoked consumes them;

²⁷Heaven exposes their guilt;

earth opposes them.

²⁸Their household wealth will be carried off

by rushing streams on the day of his anger.

²⁹This is a wicked person’s lot from God,

their heritage decreed by God.