Zophar Speaks: The Wicked Will Suffer
Then aZophar the Naamathite answered and said:
2 “Therefore my athoughts answer me,
because of my haste within me.
3 I hear censure that insults me,
and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
4 Do you not know this from of old,
asince man was placed on earth,
5 athat the exulting of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
6 aThough his height mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach to the clouds,
7 he will perish forever like his own adung;
those who have seen him will say, b‘Where is he?’
8 He will fly away like aa dream and not be found;
he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 aThe eye that saw him will see him no more,
nor will his place any more behold him.
10 His children will seek the favor of the poor,
and his hands will agive back his wealth.
11 His bones are full of his ayouthful vigor,
but it will lie bdown with him in the dust.
12 “Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
though he hides it aunder his tongue,
13 though he is loath to let it go
and holds it in his mouth,
14 yet his food is turned in his stomach;
it is the venom of acobras within him.
15 He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;
God casts them out of his belly.
16 He will suck the poison of cobras;
athe tongue of a viper will kill him.
17 He will not look upon athe rivers,
the streams flowing with bhoney and ccurds.
18 He will agive back the fruit of his toil
and will not bswallow it down;
from the profit of his trading
he will get no enjoyment.
19 For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;
he has seized a house that he did not build.
20 “Because he aknew no bcontentment in his belly,
che will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
21 There was nothing left after he had eaten;
therefore his prosperity will not endure.
22 In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;
the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
23 To fill his belly to the full,
God will send his burning anger against him
and rain it upon him ainto his body.
24 aHe will flee from an iron weapon;
ba bronze arrow will strike chim through.
25 It ais drawn forth and comes out of his body;
bthe glittering point comes out of his cgallbladder;
dterrors come upon him.
26 Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;
aa fire not fanned will devour him;
what is left in his tent will be consumed.
27 aThe heavens will reveal his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him.
28 The possessions of his house will be carried away,
dragged off in the day of God’s wrath.
29 aThis is the wicked man’s portion from God,
athe heritage decreed for him by God.”