Chapter 20

  And Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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  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].  

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

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

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

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

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  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.  

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

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

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  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.  

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

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

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

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