Job 20

Zophar’s Second Speech

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,[#Hebrew “And”]

²“Therefore my disquieting thoughts bring me back

for the sake of my inward excitement.

³I hear discipline that insults me,

and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.

⁴“Did you know this from of old,[#Singular]

since the setting of the human being on earth,

⁵that the rejoicing of the wicked is short,[#Literally “from near”]

and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment?

⁶Even though his stature mounts up to the heaven,

and his head reaches to the clouds,

⁷he will perish forever like his dung;

those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

⁸He will fly away like a dream, and they will not find him,

and he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹The eye that saw him will not see him again,[#Literally “and it will not do again”]

and his place will no longer behold him.

¹⁰His children will seek favors from the poor,

and his hands will return his wealth.

¹¹His bones were full of his vigor,

but it will lie down with him on the dust.

¹²“Though wickedness tastes sweet in his mouth,

and he hides it under his tongue,

¹³though he spares it and does not let it go

and holds it back in the midst of his palate,

¹⁴in his bowels his food is turned,

the venom of horned vipers is within him.

¹⁵He swallows riches, but he vomits them up;[#Hebrew “and”; #Hebrew “it”]

God drives them out from his stomach.

¹⁶He will suck the poison of horned vipers;

the viper’s tongue will kill him.

¹⁷He will not enjoy the streams,[#Literally “He will not look on streams”]

the torrents of honey and curds.

¹⁸Returning the products of his toil, he will not swallow;[#Hebrew “and he will not swallow”]

according to the profit of his trade, he will not enjoy,

¹⁹for he has oppressed; he has abandoned the poor;

he has seized a house but did not build it.

²⁰Because he has not known satisfaction in his stomach,

he lets nothing escape that he desires.

²¹There is nothing left after he has eaten;[#Literally “There is not a remnant at his eating”]

therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²²In the fullness of his excess he will be in distress;[#Literally “it will be in distress for him”]

all of misery’s power will come upon him.

²³When his stomach fills up, God will send his burning anger upon him,[#Literally “It will be to fill up his stomach”; #Literally “the blaze of his nose/anger”]

and he will let it rain down upon him as his food.

²⁴“He will flee from an iron weapon,

but an arrow of bronze will pierce him.

²⁵He draws it forth, and it comes out from his body,

and the glittering point comes from his gall-bladder;

terrors come upon him.

²⁶Total darkness is hidden for his treasures;[#Literally “All darkness”; #Or “His treasures are hidden by total darkness”]

an unfanned fire will devour him;

the remnant will be consumed in his tent.

²⁷The heavens will reveal his guilt,

and the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The products of his house will be carried away[#Or “the produce of his house will go away into exile”]

like gushing waters on the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is a wicked human being’s portion from God

and the inheritance of his decree from God.”