Job 20

Job 20

Zophar Speaks: Wickedness Receives Just Retribution

1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:

2“Listen! My thoughts urge me to answer

because of the agitation within me.

3I hear censure that insults me,[#Job 19.3]

and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.

4Do you not know this from of old,[#Deut 4.32]

ever since mortals were placed on earth,

5that the exulting of the wicked is short[#Ps 37.35; 73.19]

and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?

6Even though they mount up high as the heavens[#Isa 14.13, 14]

and their head reaches to the clouds,

7they will perish forever like their own dung;

those who have seen them will say, ‘Where are they?’

8They will fly away like a dream and not be found;[#Job 18.18; 27.21–23; Ps 73.20; 90.5]

they will be chased away like a vision of the night.

9The eye that saw them will see them no more,[#Job 7.8, 10]

nor will their place behold them any longer.

10Their children will seek the favor of the poor,[#Job 5.4; 27.16, 17]

and their hands will give back their wealth.

11Their bodies, once full of youth,[#Job 13.26; 21.26]

will lie down in the dust with them.

12“Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth,[#Ps 10.7; Prov 20.17]

though they hide it under their tongues,

13though they are loath to let it go

and hold it in their mouths,

14yet their food is turned in their stomachs;

it is the venom of asps within them.

15They swallow down riches and vomit them up again;

God casts them out of their bellies.

16They will suck the poison of asps;[#Deut 32.24, 33]

the tongue of a viper will kill them.

17They will not look on the rivers,[#Deut 32.13, 14; Job 29.6]

the streams flowing with honey and curds.

18They will give back the fruit of their toil[#vv 10, 15]

and will not swallow it down;

from the profit of their trading

they will get no enjoyment.

19For they have crushed and abandoned the poor;[#Job 24.2–4; 35.9]

they have seized a house that they did not build.

20“For they knew no quiet in their bellies;[#Eccl 5.13, 14]

in their greed they let nothing escape.

21There was nothing left after they had eaten;[#Job 15.29]

therefore their prosperity will not endure.

22In full sufficiency they will be in distress;

all the force of misery will come upon them.

23To fill their belly to the full,[#Ps 78.30, 31]

God will send his fierce anger into them

and rain it upon them as their food.

24They will flee from an iron weapon;[#Isa 24.18; Jer 48.43; Am 5.19]

a bronze arrow will strike them through.

25It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,[#Job 16.13; 18.11]

and the glittering point comes out of their gall;

terrors come upon them.

26Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;[#Job 18.18; Ps 21.9]

a fire fanned by no one will devour them;

what is left in their tent will be consumed.

27The heavens will reveal their iniquity,[#Deut 31.28]

and the earth will rise up against them.

28The possessions of their house will be carried away,[#Deut 28.31; Job 21.30]

dragged off in the day of God’s wrath.

29This is the portion of the wicked from God,[#Job 27.13]

the heritage decreed for them by God.”

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ