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Job 20

¹Then Zophar the Na'amathite answered:

²"Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.

³I hear censure which insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

⁴Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed upon earth,

⁵that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,

⁷he will perish for ever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, `ose who have seen him will say, "Where is he?'

⁸He will fly away like a dream, and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹The eye which saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.

¹⁰His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.

¹²"Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,

¹³though he is loath to let it go, and holds it in his mouth,

¹⁴yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the gall of asps within him.

¹⁵He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.

¹⁶He will suck the poison of asps; the tongue of a viper will kill him.

¹⁷He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.

¹⁸He 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.

¹⁹For he has crushed and abandoned the poor, he has seized a house which he did not build.

²⁰"Because his greed knew no rest, he will not save anything in which he delights.

²¹There was nothing left after he had eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²²In the fulness of his sufficiency he will be in straits; all the force of misery will come upon him.

²³To fill his belly to the full God will send his fierce anger into him, and rain it upon him as his food.

²⁴He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through.

²⁵It is drawn forth and comes out of his body, the glittering point comes out of his gall; terrors come upon him.

²⁶Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not blown upon will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.

²⁷The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God's wrath.

²⁹This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God."

Job 20 (RSV)

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Job

Chapter 20

20 of 42