Job 20:1-16 ▼

1 And Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

2 “So my anxious thoughts make me answer, because of my urgency within me.

3 The rebuke of my shaming I have heard, and a spirit from my understanding answers for me.

4 This do you know from long ago, from the placing of man upon the earth,

5 that the triumph of the wicked is brief, and the rejoicing of the godless is for a moment?

6 Though his loftiness should go up to the heavens, and his head should touch to the clouds,

7 like his dung, forever he will perish; those having seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

8 Like a dream he will fly away and they will not find him; indeed he will be made to wander like a vision of the night.

9 The eye that saw him will not continue, and his place will not behold him again.

10 His children will recompense the poor, and his hands will return his wealth.

11 His bones are full of his vigor, and upon the dust it will lie down with him.

12 Though evil is sweet in his mouth, and he hides it under his tongue,

13 he has pity on it and does not forsake it, and he withholds it in the midst of his palate.

14 His food is turned over in his belly, and the venom of cobras is within him.

15 He swallows wealth and vomits it; from his belly God expels it.

16 The poison of cobras he will suck, and the tongue of a viper will kill him.