VerseAI

NIV

Job 20

  1. 1<pb/>Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
  2. 2<pb/><t>“My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer</t> <t>because I am greatly disturbed.</t>
  3. 3<t>I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,</t> <t>and my understanding inspires me to reply. <pb/></t>
  4. 4<t>“Surely you know how it has been from of old,</t> <t>ever since mankind<f>[32]</f> was placed on the earth,</t>
  5. 5<t>that the mirth of the wicked is brief,</t> <t>the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.</t>
  6. 6<t>Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens</t> <t>and his head touches the clouds,</t>
  7. 7<t>he will perish forever, like his own dung;</t> <t>those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’</t>
  8. 8<t>Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,</t> <t>banished like a vision of the night.</t>
  9. 9<t>The eye that saw him will not see him again;</t> <t>his place will look on him no more.</t>
  10. 10<t>His children must make amends to the poor;</t> <t>his own hands must give back his wealth.</t>
  11. 11<t>The youthful vigor that fills his bones</t> <t>will lie with him in the dust. <pb/></t>
  12. 12<t>“Though evil is sweet in his mouth</t> <t>and he hides it under his tongue,</t>
  13. 13<t>though he cannot bear to let it go</t> <t>and lets it linger in his mouth,</t>
  14. 14<t>yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;</t> <t>it will become the venom of serpents within him.</t>
  15. 15<t>He will spit out the riches he swallowed;</t> <t>God will make his stomach vomit them up.</t>
  16. 16<t>He will suck the poison of serpents;</t> <t>the fangs of an adder will kill him.</t>
  17. 17<t>He will not enjoy the streams,</t> <t>the rivers flowing with honey and cream.</t>
  18. 18<t>What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;</t> <t>he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.</t>
  19. 19<t>For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute;</t> <t>he has seized houses he did not build. <pb/></t>
  20. 20<t>“Surely he will have no respite from his craving;</t> <t>he cannot save himself by his treasure.</t>
  21. 21<t>Nothing is left for him to devour;</t> <t>his prosperity will not endure.</t>
  22. 22<t>In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him;</t> <t>the full force of misery will come upon him.</t>
  23. 23<t>When he has filled his belly,</t> <t>God will vent his burning anger against him</t> <t>and rain down his blows on him.</t>
  24. 24<t>Though he flees from an iron weapon,</t> <t>a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.</t>
  25. 25<t>He pulls it out of his back,</t> <t>the gleaming point out of his liver.</t> <t>Terrors will come over him;</t>
  26. 26<t>total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.</t> <t>A fire unfanned will consume him</t> <t>and devour what is left in his tent.</t>
  27. 27<t>The heavens will expose his guilt;</t> <t>the earth will rise up against him.</t>
  28. 28<t>A flood will carry off his house,</t> <t>rushing waters<f>[33]</f> on the day of God’s wrath.</t>
  29. 29<t>Such is the fate God allots the wicked,</t> <t>the heritage appointed for them by God.”</t>