Job 20
Zophar Speaks: The Wicked Will Suffer
[1] Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
[2] “Therefore my thoughts answer me,
because of my haste within me.
[3] I hear censure that insults me,
and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
[4] Do you not know this from of old,
since man was placed on earth,
[5] that the exulting of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
[6] Though his height mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach to the clouds,
[7] he will perish forever like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
[8] He will fly away like a dream and not be found;
he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
[9] The eye that saw him will see him no more,
nor will his place any more behold him.
[10] His children will seek the favor of the poor,
and his hands will give back his wealth.
[11] His bones are full of his youthful vigor,
but it will lie down with him in the dust.
[12] “Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
though he hides it under his tongue,
[13] though he is loath to let it go
and holds it in his mouth,
[14] yet his food is turned in his stomach;
it is the venom of cobras within him.
[15] He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;
God casts them out of his belly.
[16] He will suck the poison of cobras;
the tongue of a viper will kill him.
[17] He will not look upon the rivers,
the streams flowing with honey and curds.
[18] He will give back the fruit of his toil
and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of his trading
he will get no enjoyment.
[19] For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;
he has seized a house that he did not build.
[20] “Because he knew no contentment in his belly,
he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
[21] There was nothing left after he had eaten;
therefore his prosperity will not endure.
[22] In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;
the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
[23] To fill his belly to the full,
God will send his burning anger against him
and rain it upon him into his body.
[24] He will flee from an iron weapon;
a bronze arrow will strike him through.
[25] It is drawn forth and comes out of his body;
the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder;
terrors come upon him.
[26] Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;
a fire not fanned will devour him;
what is left in his tent will be consumed.
[27] The heavens will reveal his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him.
[28] The possessions of his house will be carried away,
dragged off in the day of God’s wrath.
[29] This is the wicked man’s portion from God,
the heritage decreed for him by God.” (ESV)
