Job 20

Zophar: Destruction Awaits the Wicked

¹ Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

² “So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer,

because of the turmoil within me.

³ I have heard a rebuke that insults me,

and my understanding prompts a reply.

⁴ Do you not know that from antiquity,

since man was placed on the earth,

⁵ the triumph of the wicked has been brief

and the joy of the godless momentary?

⁶ Though his arrogance reaches the heavens,

and his head touches the clouds,

⁷ he will perish forever, like his own dung;

those who had seen him will ask, ‘Where is he?’

⁸ He will fly away like a dream, never to be found;

he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

⁹ The eye that saw him will see him no more,

and his place will no longer behold him.

¹⁰ His sons will seek the favor of the poor,

for his own hands must return his wealth.

¹¹ The youthful vigor that fills his bones

will lie down with him in the dust.

¹² Though evil is sweet in his mouth

and he conceals it under his tongue,

¹³ though he cannot bear to let it go

and keeps it in his mouth,

¹⁴ yet in his stomach his food sours

into the venom of cobras within him.

¹⁵ He swallows wealth but vomits it out;

God will force it from his stomach.

¹⁶ He will suck the poison of cobras;

the fangs of a viper will kill him.

¹⁷ He will not enjoy the streams,

the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

¹⁸ He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;

he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.

¹⁹ For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor;

he has seized houses he did not build.

²⁰ Because his appetite is never satisfied,

he cannot escape with his treasure.

²¹ Nothing is left for him to consume;

thus his prosperity will not endure.

²² In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed;

the full force of misery will come upon him.

²³ When he has filled his stomach,

God will vent His fury upon him,

raining it down on him as he eats.

²⁴ Though he flees from an iron weapon,

a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce him.

²⁵ It is drawn out of his back,

the gleaming point from his liver.^a

Terrors come over him.

²⁶ Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.

A fire unfanned will consume him

and devour what is left in his tent.

²⁷ The heavens will expose his iniquity,

and the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸ The possessions of his house will be removed,

flowing away on the day of God’s wrath.

²⁹ This is the wicked man’s portion from God,

the inheritance God has appointed him.”