Chapter 20

And Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,

Therefore do my thoughts give me an answer, and for this is my haste within me.

I hear a reproof putting me to shame; and [my] spirit answereth me by mine understanding.

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

The exultation of the wicked is short, and the joy of the ungodly man but for a moment?

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

Like his own dung doth he perish for ever; they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

He flieth away as a dream, and is not found; and is chased away as a vision of the night.

The eye which saw him shall [see him] not again; and his place beholdeth him no more.

His children shall seek the favour of the poor, and his hands restore his wealth.

His bones were full of his youthful strength; but it shall lie down with him in the dust.

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth [and] he hide it under his tongue,

[Though] he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it within his mouth,

His food is turned in his bowels; it is the gall of asps within him.

He hath swallowed down riches, but he shall vomit them up again: ùGod shall cast them out of his belly.

He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper's tongue shall kill him.

He shall not see streams, rivers, brooks of honey and butter.

That which he laboured for shall he restore, and not swallow down; its restitution shall be according to the value, and he shall not rejoice [therein].

For he hath oppressed, hath forsaken the poor; he hath violently taken away a house that he did not build.

Because he knew no rest in his craving, he shall save nought of what he most desired.

Nothing escaped his greediness; therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits; every hand of the wretched shall come upon him.

It shall be that, to fill his belly, he will cast his fierce anger upon him, and will rain it upon him into his flesh.

If he have fled from the iron weapon, the bow of brass shall strike him through.

He draweth it forth; it cometh out of his body, and the glittering point out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

All darkness is laid up for his treasures: a fire not blown shall devour him; it shall feed upon what is left in his tent.

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

The increase of his house shall depart, flowing away in the day of his anger.

This is the portion of the wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by ùGod.