Job 20 — NETB

20Verse 1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:^{Verse 2}“This is why my troubled thoughts bring me back –
because of my feelings within me.^{Verse 3}When I hear a reproof that dishonors me,
then my understanding prompts me to answer.
^{Verse 4}“Surely you know that it has been from old,
ever since humankind was placed on the earth,
^{Verse 5}that the elation of the wicked is brief,
the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
^{Verse 6}Even though his stature reaches to the heavens
and his head touches the clouds,
^{Verse 7}he will perish forever, like his own excrement;
those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?’
^{Verse 8}Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found,
and like a vision of the night he is put to flight.
^{Verse 9}People who had seen him will not see him again,
and the place where he was
will recognize him no longer.
^{Verse 10}His sons must recompense the poor;
his own hands must return his wealth.
^{Verse 11}His bones were full of his youthful vigor,
but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.
^{Verse 12}“If evil is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
^{Verse 13}if he retains it for himself
and does not let it go,
and holds it fast in his mouth,
^{Verse 14}his food is turned sour in his stomach;
it becomes the venom of serpents within him.
^{Verse 15}The wealth that he consumed he vomits up,
God will make him throw it out of his stomach.
^{Verse 16}He sucks the poison of serpents;
the fangs of a viper kill him.
^{Verse 17}He will not look on the streams,
the rivers, which are the torrents
of honey and butter.
^{Verse 18}He gives back the ill-gotten gain
without assimilating it;
he will not enjoy the wealth from his commerce.
^{Verse 19}For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them;
he has seized a house which he did not build.
^{Verse 20}For he knows no satisfaction in his appetite;
he does not let anything he desires escape.
^{Verse 21}“Nothing is left for him to devour;
that is why his prosperity does not last.
^{Verse 22}In the fullness of his sufficiency,
distress overtakes him.
the full force of misery will come upon him.
^{Verse 23}“While he is filling his belly,
God sends his burning anger against him,
and rains down his blows upon him.
^{Verse 24}If he flees from an iron weapon,
then an arrow from a bronze bow pierces him.
^{Verse 25}When he pulls it out and it comes out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver,
terrors come over him.
^{Verse 26}Total darkness waits to receive his treasures;
a fire which has not been kindled
will consume him
and devour what is left in his tent.
^{Verse 27}The heavens reveal his iniquity;
the earth rises up against him.
^{Verse 28}A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.
^{Verse 29}Such is the lot God allots the wicked,
and the heritage of his appointment from God.”