Chapter 20

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, ²Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste. ³I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. ⁴Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, ⁵That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? ⁶Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; ⁷Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? ⁸He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. ⁹The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him. ¹⁰His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods. ¹¹His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust. ¹²Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; ¹³Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: ¹⁴Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. ¹⁵He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. ¹⁶He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him. ¹⁷He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. ¹⁸That 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. ¹⁹Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not; ²⁰Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. ²¹There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods. ²²In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. ²³When 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. ²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. ²⁵It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him. ²⁶All 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. ²⁷The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. ²⁸The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. ²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.