Chapter 20

  Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said,  

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  For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving me on.  

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  I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame, and your answers to me are wind without wisdom.  

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  Have you knowledge of this from early times, when man was placed on the earth,  

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  That the pride of the sinner is short, and the joy of the evil-doer but for a minute?  

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  Though he is lifted up to the heavens, and his head goes up to the clouds;  

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  Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever: those who have seen him say, Where is he?  

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  He is gone like a dream, and is not seen again; he goes in flight like a vision of the night.  

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  The eye which saw him sees him no longer; and his place has no more knowledge of him.  

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  His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to them, and his hands give back his wealth.  

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  His bones are full of young strength, but it will go down with him into the dust.  

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  Though evil-doing is sweet in his mouth, and he keeps it secretly under his tongue;  

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  Though he takes care of it, and does not let it go, but keeps it still in his mouth;  

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  His food becomes bitter in his stomach; the poison of snakes is inside him.  

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  He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it is forced out of his stomach by God.  

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  He takes the poison of snakes into his mouth, the tongue of the snake is the cause of his death.  

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  Let him not see the rivers of oil, the streams of honey and milk.  

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  He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading.  

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  Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;  

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  There is no peace for him in his wealth, and no salvation for him in those things in which he took delight.  

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  He had never enough for his desire; for this cause his well-being will quickly come to an end.  

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  Even when his wealth is great, he is full of care, for the hand of everyone who is in trouble is turned against him.  

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  God gives him his desire, and sends the heat of his wrath on him, making it come down on him like rain.  

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  He may go in flight from the iron spear, but the arrow from the bow of brass will go through him;  

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  He is pulling it out, and it comes out of his back; and its shining point comes out of his side; he is overcome by fears.  

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  All his wealth is stored up for the dark: a fire not made by man sends destruction on him, and on everything in his tent.  

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  The heavens make clear his sin, and the earth gives witness against him.  

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  The produce of his house is taken away into another country, like things given into the hands of others in the day of wrath.  

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  This is the reward of the evil man, and the heritage given to him by God.  

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