Job - Chapter 20

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¹ Zophar of Naamath spoke next. He said:

² My thoughts urge me to reply to this, and hence the impatience that grips me.

³ I have put up with prating that outrages me and now my mind inspires me with an answer.

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⁴ Do you not know, that since time began and human beings were set on the earth,

⁵ the triumph of the wicked has always been brief, and the sinner's gladness has never lasted long?

⁶ Towering to the sky he may have been, his head touching the clouds;

⁷ but he vanishes, like a phantom, once for all, while those who used to see him, ask, 'Where is he?'

⁸ Like a dream that leaves no trace he takes his flight, like a vision in the night he flies away.

⁹ The eye accustomed to see him sees him no more, his home will never set eyes on him again.

¹⁰ His sons will have to reimburse the poor and his children pay back his riches.

¹¹ His bones used to be full of youthful vigour: and there it lies, in the dust with him, now!

¹² Evil was sweet to his mouth, he would shelter it under his tongue;

¹³ cultivating it carefully, he would let it linger on his palate.

¹⁴ Such food goes bad in his belly, working inside him like the poison of a viper.

¹⁵ Now he has to vomit up the wealth that he has swallowed, God makes him disgorge it.

¹⁶ He used to suck vipers' venom, and the tongue of the adder kills him.

¹⁷ No more will he know the streams of oil or the torrents of honey and cream.

¹⁸ When he gives back his winnings, his cheerfulness will fade, and the satisfied air he had when business was thriving.

¹⁹ Since he once destroyed the huts of the poor, plundering houses instead of building them up,

²⁰ since his avarice could never be satisfied, now all his hoarding will not save him;

²¹ since nothing could escape his greed, his prosperity will not last.

²² When he has everything he needs, want will seize him, and misery will light on him with all its force.

²³ On him God looses all his burning wrath, hurling against his flesh a hail of arrows.

²⁴ If he escapes the weapons of iron, the bow of bronze will transfix him.

²⁵ Out of his back sticks an arrow, from his gall a shining point. The terrors advance on him,

²⁶ all the hidden darknesses are waiting to carry him off. A fire unlit by human hand devours him, and consumes what is left in his tent.

²⁷ The heavens lay bare his iniquity, and the earth rises up against him.

²⁸ The income of his house pours away, like the torrents, on the day of retribution.

²⁹ Such is the fate God reserves for the wicked, the inheritance he assigns to the accursed!