Job, 20

1. Zophar of Naamath spoke next. He said:

1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

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

2. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for [this] I make haste.

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

3. I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

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

4. Knowest thou [not] this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

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

5. That the triumphing of the wicked [is] short, and the joy of the hypocrite [but] for a moment?

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

6. Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

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

7. [Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where [is] he?

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

8. He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

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

9. The eye also [which] saw him shall [see him] no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

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

10. His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

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

11. His bones are full [of the sin] of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

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

12. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, [though] he hide it under his tongue;

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

13. [Though] he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

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

14. [Yet] his meat in his bowels is turned, [it is] the gall of asps within him.

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

15. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.

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

16. He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.

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

17. He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

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

18. That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow [it] down: according to [his] substance [shall] the restitution [be], and he shall not rejoice [therein].

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

19. Because he hath oppressed [and] hath forsaken the poor; [because] he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

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

20. Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

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

21. There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

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

22. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

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

23. [When] he is about to fill his belly, [God] shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain [it] upon him while he is eating.

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

24. He shall flee from the iron weapon, [and] the bow of steel shall strike him through.

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

25. It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors [are] upon 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.

26. All darkness [shall be] hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

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

27. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

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

28. The increase of his house shall depart, [and his goods] shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

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

29. This [is] the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.