NET Bible

Zophar’s Second Speech1

^20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:

^20:2 “This is why my troubled thoughts bring me back — because of my feelings within me. ^20:3 When I hear a reproof that dishonors me, then my understanding prompts me to answer. ^20:4 “Surely you know that it has been from old, ever since humankind was placed on the earth, ^20:5 that the elation of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. ^20:6 Even though his stature reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, ^20:7 he will perish forever, like his own excrement; those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?’ ^20:8 Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found, and like a vision of the night he is put to flight. ^20:9 People who had seen him will not see him again, and the place where he was will recognize him no longer. ^20:10 His sons must recompense the poor; his own hands must return his wealth. ^20:11 His bones were full of his youthful vigor, but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust. ^20:12 “If evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue, ^20:13 if he retains it for himself and does not let it go, and holds it fast in his mouth, ^20:14 his food is turned sour in his stomach; it becomes the venom of serpents within him. ^20:15 The wealth that he consumed he vomits up, God will make him throw it out of his stomach. ^20:16 He sucks the poison of serpents; the fangs of a viper kill him. ^20:17 He will not look on the streams, the rivers that are the torrents of honey and butter. ^20:18 He gives back the ill-gotten gain without assimilating it; he will not enjoy the wealth from his commerce. ^20:19 For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them; he has seized a house which he did not build. ^20:20 For he knows no satisfaction in his appetite; he does not let anything he desires escape. ^20:21 Nothing is left for him to devour; that is why his prosperity does not last. ^20:22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress overtakes him. The full force of misery will come upon him. ^20:23 While he is filling his belly, God sends his burning anger against him and rains down his blows upon him. ^20:24 If he flees from an iron weapon, then an arrow from a bronze bow pierces him. ^20:25 When he pulls it out and it comes out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver, terrors come over him. ^20:26 Total darkness waits to receive his treasures; a fire that has not been kindled will consume him and devour what is left in his tent. ^20:27 The heavens reveal his iniquity; the earth rises up against him. ^20:28 A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath. ^20:29 Such is the lot God allots the wicked, and the heritage of his appointment from God.”