Job 20
Legacy Standard Bible
Zophar Says the Joy of the Wicked Is Short
20 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,
2 “Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me [a]respond,
Even because of my haste within me.
3 I listened to (A)the discipline which dishonors me,
And the spirit of my understanding makes me answer.
4 Do you know this from (B)of old,
From the establishment of man on earth,
5 That the (C)shouts of joy of the wicked are short,
And (D)the gladness of the godless momentary?
6 Though his loftiness (E)goes up to the heavens,
And his head touches the clouds,
7 He (F)perishes forever like his refuse;
Those who have seen him (G)will say, ‘Where is he?’
8 He flies away like a (H)dream, and they cannot find him;
Even like a vision of the night he is (I)chased away.
9 The (J)eye which saw him sees him no longer,
And (K)his place no longer beholds him.
10 His (L)sons seek the favor of the poor,
And his hands (M)give back his wealth.
11 His (N)bones are full of his youthful vigor,
But it lies down with him [b]in the dust.
12 “Though (O)evil is sweet in his mouth
And he hides it under his tongue,
13 Though he [c]desires it and will not forsake it,
And holds it (P)to his palate,
14 Yet his food in his stomach is changed
To the [d]venom of cobras within him.
15 He swallows up wealth,
But will (Q)vomit it up;
God will expel it from his belly.
16 He sucks (R)the poison of cobras;
The viper’s tongue kills him.
17 He does not look at (S)the streams,
The rivers flowing with honey and curds.
18 He (T)returns what he has attained
And cannot swallow it;
As to the wealth of his trading,
He cannot even enjoy it.
19 For he has (U)crushed and forsaken the poor;
He has seized a house which he has not built.
20 “Because he knew no ease within his belly,
In his covetousness, he does (V)not let anything escape.
21 Nothing remains [e]for him to devour;
Therefore (W)his prosperity does not endure.
22 In the fullness of his plenty he will be confined;
The (X)hand of everyone who is troubled will come against him.
23 So it will be that he (Y)fills his belly,
And God will send His burning anger on him
And will (Z)rain it on him [f]while he is eating.
24 He may (AA)flee from the iron weapon,
But the bronze bow will pierce him.
25 It is drawn forth and comes out of his back,
Even the glittering point from (AB)his gall;
(AC)Bouts of dread come upon him.
26 Complete (AD)darkness is held in reserve for his treasures;
A (AE)fire unfanned will devour him;
It will consume the survivor in his tent.
27 The (AF)heavens will reveal his iniquity,
And the earth will rise up against him.
28 The (AG)increase of his house will depart;
His possessions will flow away (AH)in the day of His anger.
29 This is the wicked man’s (AI)portion from God,
Even the inheritance decreed to him by God.”
Job 20
New Catholic Bible
Zophar’s Second Speech[a]
Chapter 20
The Joy of a Sinner Lasts Only for a Moment.
1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 “The words you have spoken have caused me great distress,
and as a result, I am forced to reply.
3 I have been outraged by your censure,
but now a spirit beyond my understanding
provides me with the answers to rebuke you.
4 “Surely you must know that since time began
and man was first placed on the earth,
5 the triumph of the wicked has always been short-lived,
and the joy of the sinner lasts only for a moment.
6 Even though in his pride he towers to the sky
and his head touches the clouds,
7 he is destined to perish forever like his own dung,[b]
and those who used to see him will ask:
‘Where is he?’
8 He will fade away like a dream and never be found again;
he will vanish like a vision of the night.
9 The eyes that saw him will see him no more,
and his dwelling will not behold him any longer.
He Wolfs Down Riches and Then Vomits Them Up
10 “His children will seek the favor of the poor,
and his hands will be forced to return his wealth.
11 The youthful vigor that once filled his body
will be stagnant with him in the earth.
12 “Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
13 though he continues to keep it in his mouth
and is loath to let it go,
14 yet such food will turn sour in his stomach,
working inside him like the venom of asps.
15 He wolfs down riches and then vomits them up;
God forces him to disgorge them from his stomach.
16 “Such a person will suck the venom of asps;
the tongue of a viper will slay him.
17 He will see no streams of oil
or rivers flowing with honey and cream.[c]
18 He will be forced to restore his gains without enjoying them;
even though his wealth increased, he will derive no enjoyment.
19 For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute,
seizing houses that he did not build.
20 “Since his avarice could never be satisfied,
no amount of hoarding will save him.
21 Since his greed was insatiable,
his prosperity will not endure.
22 When he possesses everything he desires,
his troubles will begin,
and the full force of misery will strike him down.
23 “God will unleash the fury of his wrath against him
and rain down upon him a hail of arrows.
24 If he escapes a weapon of iron,
a bow of bronze will pierce him through.
25 The tip of the arrow will protrude from his body
and the glittering point will emerge from his bladder;
terrors will descend upon him.
26 “Unrelieved darkness is what awaits him;
a fire[d] that does not need to be fanned will devour him,
and anything left in his tent will be consumed.
27 The heavens will lay bare his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him.
28 Flood waters will sweep away his house
like the torrents on the day of God’s wrath.
29 This is the lot that God reserves for the wicked,
the heritage assigned to him by God.”
Footnotes
- Job 20:1 Job’s anguished appeal does not move his friend Zophar. Zophar once more paints a picture of Job as a proud and wicked man on whom the wrath of God will soon descend.
- Job 20:7 Dung: a symbol of everything that is ephemeral and without value (see 1 Ki 14:10).
- Job 20:17 Oil . . . honey and cream: these were staple products of Palestine.
- Job 20:26 Fire: i.e., lightning.
Job 20
The Message
Zophar Attacks Job—The Second Round
Savoring Evil as a Delicacy
20 1-3 Zophar from Naamath again took his turn:
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing!
You’ve put my teeth on edge, my stomach in a knot.
How dare you insult my intelligence like this!
Well, here’s a piece of my mind!
4-11 “Don’t you even know the basics,
how things have been since the earliest days,
when Adam and Eve were first placed on earth?
The good times of the wicked are short-lived;
godless joy is only momentary.
The evil might become world famous,
strutting at the head of the celebrity parade,
But still end up in a pile of dung.
Acquaintances look at them with disgust and say, ‘What’s that?’
They fly off like a dream that can’t be remembered,
like a shadowy illusion that vanishes in the light.
Though once notorious public figures, now they’re nobodies,
unnoticed, whether they come or go.
Their children will go begging on skid row,
and they’ll have to give back their ill-gotten gain.
Right in the prime of life,
and youthful and vigorous, they’ll die.
12-19 “They savor evil as a delicacy,
roll it around on their tongues,
Prolong the flavor, a dalliance in decadence—
real gourmets of evil!
But then they get stomach cramps,
a bad case of food poisoning.
They gag on all that rich food;
God makes them vomit it up.
They gorge on evil, make a diet of that poison—
a deadly diet—and it kills them.
No quiet picnics for them beside gentle streams
with fresh-baked bread and cheese, and tall, cool drinks.
They spit out their food half-chewed,
unable to relax and enjoy anything they’ve worked for.
And why? Because they exploited the poor,
took what never belonged to them.
20-29 “Such God-denying people are never content with what they have or who they are;
their greed drives them relentlessly.
They plunder everything
but they can’t hold on to any of it.
Just when they think they have it all, disaster strikes;
they’re served up a plate full of misery.
When they’ve filled their bellies with that,
God gives them a taste of his anger,
and they get to chew on that for a while.
As they run for their lives from one disaster,
they run smack into another.
They’re knocked around from pillar to post,
beaten to within an inch of their lives.
They’re trapped in a house of horrors,
and see their loot disappear down a black hole.
Their lives are a total loss—
not a penny to their name, not so much as a bean.
God will strip them of their sin-soaked clothes
and hang their dirty laundry out for all to see.
Life is a complete wipeout for them,
nothing surviving God’s wrath.
There! That’s God’s blueprint for the wicked—
what they have to look forward to.”
Giobbe 20
Conferenza Episcopale Italiana
L'ordine della giustizia non ammette eccezioni
20 Zofar il Naamatita prese a dire:
2 Per questo i miei pensieri mi spingono a rispondere
e perciò v'è questa fretta dentro di me.
3 Ho ascoltato un rimprovero per me offensivo,
ma uno spirito, dal mio interno, mi spinge a
replicare.
4 Non sai tu che da sempre,
da quando l'uomo fu posto sulla terra,
5 il trionfo degli empi è breve
e la gioia del perverso è d'un istante?
6 Anche se innalzasse fino al cielo la sua statura
e il suo capo toccasse le nubi,
7 come lo sterco sarebbe spazzato per sempre
e chi lo aveva visto direbbe: «Dov'è?».
8 Svanirà come un sogno, e non si troverà più,
si dileguerà come visione notturna.
9 L'occhio avvezzo a vederlo più non lo vedrà,
né più lo scorgerà la sua dimora.
10 I suoi figli dovranno risarcire i poveri,
le loro mani restituiranno le sue ricchezze.
11 Le sue ossa erano ancora piene di giovinezza,
ma con lui giacciono nella polvere.
12 Se alla sua bocca fu dolce il male,
se lo teneva nascosto sotto la sua lingua,
13 assaporandolo senza inghiottirlo,
se lo tratteneva in mezzo al suo palato:
14 il suo cibo gli si guasterà nelle viscere,
veleno d'aspidi gli sarà nell'intestino.
15 I beni divorati ora rivomita,
Dio glieli caccia fuori dal ventre.
16 Veleno d'aspide ha succhiato,
una lingua di vipera lo uccide.
17 Non vedrà più ruscelli d'olio,
fiumi di miele e fior di latte;
18 renderà i sudati acquisti senza assaggiarli,
come non godrà del frutto del suo commercio,
19 perché ha oppresso e abbandonato i miseri,
ha rubato case invece di costruirle;
20 perché non ha saputo essere pago dei suoi beni,
con i suoi tesori non si salverà.
21 Nulla è sfuggito alla sua voracità,
per questo non durerà il suo benessere.
22 Nel colmo della sua abbondanza si troverà in
miseria;
ogni sorta di sciagura piomberà su di lui.
23 Quando starà per riempire il suo ventre,
Dio scaglierà su di lui la fiamma del suo sdegno,
e gli farà piovere addosso brace.
24 Se sfuggirà l'arma di ferro,
lo trafiggerà l'arco di bronzo:
25 gli uscirà il dardo dalla schiena,
una spada lucente dal fegato.
Lo assaliranno i terrori;
26 tutte le tenebre gli sono riservate.
Lo divorerà un fuoco non acceso da un uomo,
esso consumerà quanto è rimasto nella sua tenda.
27 Riveleranno i cieli la sua iniquità
e la terra si alzerà contro di lui.
28 Un'alluvione travolgerà la sua casa,
scorrerà nel giorno dell'ira.
29 Questa è la sorte che Dio riserva all'uomo
perverso,
la parte a lui decretata da Dio.
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