Job 20

1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: 2So my troubled thoughts urge me to reply, because I am deeply stirred. 3I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and out of my understanding my spirit gives me a reply. 4Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since humans were placed on the earth, 5that the triumph of the wicked is brief, and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment. 6Though their pride rises up to the heavens and their heads touch the clouds, 7they will perish forever like their own dung; those who used to see them will ask, “Where are they?” 8They will fly away like a dream and not be found; they will be driven off like a vision in the night. 9The eye that once saw them will not see them again; their place will look on them no more. 10Their children will have to make amends to the poor; their own hands must give back their wealth. 11Their bones were full of youthful strength, but it will lie down with them in the dust. 12Though evil tastes sweet in their mouth and they hide it under their tongue, 13though they cannot bear to let it go but keep it in their mouth, 14their food turns sour in their stomach; it becomes the venom of cobras inside them. 15They swallow riches but vomit them up again; God makes their stomach throw them out. 16They suck the poison of cobras; the viper’s fangs will kill them. 17They will never enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream. 18They must give back what they toiled for and cannot swallow it; they get no joy from the profits of their trading. 19For they crushed the poor and left them destitute; they seized houses they had not built. 20Because their greed was never satisfied, they will not save any of the things they prized. 21Nothing was left after they had eaten; therefore their prosperity will not last. 22At the height of their plenty, distress will overtake them; every hand of the wretched will turn against them. 23When they are about to fill their stomach, God will send his burning anger against them and rain it down on them as their food. 24They may run from an iron weapon, but an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce them. 25It is pulled out and comes out of their back, the gleaming point out of their gall; terrors come over them. 26Total darkness is stored up for their treasures. A fire no one fanned will consume them, and anyone left in their tent will come to harm. 27The heavens will expose their guilt, and the earth will rise up against them. 28The wealth of their house will be carried away, swept off like floodwaters on the day of God’s anger. 29This is what God gives to the wicked, the heritage God has appointed for them.