Chapter 20

  Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,  

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  Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.  

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  I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.  

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

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  That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?  

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  Though his excellence shall mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds;  

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  Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they who have seen him shall say, Where is he?  

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  He shall fly away as a dream, and will not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.  

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  The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.  

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  His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.  

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  His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.  

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  Though wickedness may be sweet in his mouth, though he may hide it under his tongue;  

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  Though he may spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:  

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  Yet his food in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.  

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

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  He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.  

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  He shall not see the river, the floods, the brooks of honey and buttermilk.  

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  That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice in it.  

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  Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.  

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  Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.  

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  There shall none of his food be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.  

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  In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.  

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  When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.  

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  He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.  

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  It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yes, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.  

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  All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.  

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  The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.  

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  The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.  

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

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