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.”

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Published by: Logos Bible Software