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Job 20

Zophar’s Second Response to Job

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

²“I must reply because I am greatly disturbed.

³I’ve had to endure your insults, but now my spirit prompts me to reply.

⁴“Don’t you realize that from the beginning of time, ever since people were first placed on the earth,

⁵the triumph of the wicked has been short lived and the joy of the godless has been only temporary?

⁶Though the pride of the godless reaches to the heavens and their heads touch the clouds,

⁷yet they will vanish forever, thrown away like their own dung. Those who knew them will ask, ‘Where are they?’

⁸They will fade like a dream and not be found. They will vanish like a vision in the night.

⁹Those who once saw them will see them no more. Their families will never see them again.

¹⁰Their children will beg from the poor, for they must give back their stolen riches.

¹¹Though they are young, their bones will lie in the dust.

¹²“They enjoyed the sweet taste of wickedness, letting it melt under their tongue.

¹³They savored it, holding it long in their mouths.

¹⁴But suddenly the food in their bellies turns sour, a poisonous venom in their stomach.

¹⁵They will vomit the wealth they swallowed. God won’t let them keep it down.

¹⁶They will suck the poison of cobras. The viper will kill them.

¹⁷They will never again enjoy streams of olive oil or rivers of milk and honey.

¹⁸They will give back everything they worked for. Their wealth will bring them no joy.

¹⁹For they oppressed the poor and left them destitute. They foreclosed on their homes.

²⁰They were always greedy and never satisfied. Nothing remains of all the things they dreamed about.

²¹Nothing is left after they finish gorging themselves. Therefore, their prosperity will not endure.

²²“In the midst of plenty, they will run into trouble and be overcome by misery.

²³May God give them a bellyful of trouble. May God rain down his anger upon them.

²⁴When they try to escape an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce them.

²⁵The arrow is pulled from their back, and the arrowhead glistens with blood. The terrors of death are upon them.

²⁶Their treasures will be thrown into deepest darkness. A wildfire will devour their goods, consuming all they have left.

²⁷The heavens will reveal their guilt, and the earth will testify against them.

²⁸A flood will sweep away their house. God’s anger will descend on them in torrents.

²⁹This is the reward that God gives the wicked. It is the inheritance decreed by God.”

Job 20 (NLT)

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Job

Chapter 20

20 of 42