• Zophar

  • 1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
  • 2 “My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.
  • 3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply.
  • 4 “Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since mankind was placed on the earth,
  • 5 that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
  • 6 Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,
  • 7 he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
  • 8 Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night.
  • 9 The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more.
  • 10 His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth.
  • 11 The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.
  • 12 “Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,
  • 13 though he cannot bear to let it go and lets it linger in his mouth,
  • 14 yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him.
  • 15 He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up.
  • 16 He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him.
  • 17 He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
  • 18 What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
  • 19 For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.
  • 20 “Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure.
  • 21 Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure.
  • 22 In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him.
  • 23 When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows on him.
  • 24 Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
  • 25 He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him;
  • 26 total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
  • 27 The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him.
  • 28 A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.
  • 29 Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.”