Job 20
New Living Translation
Zophar’s Second Response to Job
20 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 “I must reply
because I am greatly disturbed.
3 I’ve had to endure your insults,
but now my spirit prompts me to reply.
4 “Don’t you realize that from the beginning of time,
ever since people were first placed on the earth,
5 the triumph of the wicked has been short lived
and the joy of the godless has been only temporary?
6 Though the pride of the godless reaches to the heavens
and their heads touch the clouds,
7 yet they will vanish forever,
thrown away like their own dung.
Those who knew them will ask,
‘Where are they?’
8 They will fade like a dream and not be found.
They will vanish like a vision in the night.
9 Those who once saw them will see them no more.
Their families will never see them again.
10 Their children will beg from the poor,
for they must give back their stolen riches.
11 Though they are young,
their bones will lie in the dust.
12 “They enjoyed the sweet taste of wickedness,
letting it melt under their tongue.
13 They savored it,
holding it long in their mouths.
14 But suddenly the food in their bellies turns sour,
a poisonous venom in their stomach.
15 They will vomit the wealth they swallowed.
God won’t let them keep it down.
16 They will suck the poison of cobras.
The viper will kill them.
17 They will never again enjoy streams of olive oil
or rivers of milk and honey.
18 They will give back everything they worked for.
Their wealth will bring them no joy.
19 For they oppressed the poor and left them destitute.
They foreclosed on their homes.
20 They were always greedy and never satisfied.
Nothing remains of all the things they dreamed about.
21 Nothing is left after they finish gorging themselves.
Therefore, their prosperity will not endure.
22 “In the midst of plenty, they will run into trouble
and be overcome by misery.
23 May God give them a bellyful of trouble.
May God rain down his anger upon them.
24 When they try to escape an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce them.
25 The arrow is pulled from their back,
and the arrowhead glistens with blood.[a]
The terrors of death are upon them.
26 Their treasures will be thrown into deepest darkness.
A wildfire will devour their goods,
consuming all they have left.
27 The heavens will reveal their guilt,
and the earth will testify against them.
28 A flood will sweep away their house.
God’s anger will descend on them in torrents.
29 This is the reward that God gives the wicked.
It is the inheritance decreed by God.”
Footnotes
- 20:25 Hebrew with gall.
Job 20
International Standard Version
Zophar Speaks the Second Time
20 Then Zophar from Naamath replied:
2 “Therefore my anxious thoughts cause me to answer
because I’m agitated within me.
3 Whenever I hear an insulting rebuke,
I respond from my spirit because I understand.”
Destruction Awaits the Wicked
4 “Haven’t you known this from ancient times,
since mankind was placed on the earth?
5 The wicked triumph only briefly;
the joy of the godless is momentary.
6 Though he grow as tall as the sky,
or though his head touches the clouds,
7 he’ll perish forever, like his own excrement;
those who saw him will ask, ‘Where is he?’
8 He’ll vanish[a] like a dream, and no one will find him;
he will be chased away like a night vision.”
9 “An eye that gazes at him won’t do so again;
and his place won’t even recognize him.
10 His sons will make amends to the poor;
their hands will return his wealth.
11 Though his bones were full of youthful vigor;
yet they will lie down with him in the dust.
12 Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth,
though he conceals it under his tongue,
13 though he savors it and delays swallowing it
so he can taste it again and again in his mouth,[b]
14 his food will turn rancid in his stomach—
it will become a cobra’s poison inside him.
15 “Though he swallows wealth, he will vomit it;
God will dislodge it from his stomach.
16 He will suck the poison of cobras;
the fangs[c] of a viper will slay him.
17 He won’t look at the rivers—
the torrents of honey and curd.[d]
18 “He will restore what he has attained from his work
and won’t consume it;
he won’t enjoy the profits from his business transactions,
19 because he has crushed and abandoned the poor;
he has seized a house that he didn’t build.
20 “Since his appetite won’t quit;[e]
he won’t let anything escape his lust.[f]
21 Because nothing was left for him to devour,
therefore his prosperity won’t last.
22 Even though he is satiated and self-sufficient, he suffers—
everyone in any sort of trouble will attack him.
23 “It will come about that,
when he has filled himself to the full,
God[g] will vent his burning anger on him;
he will pour it out on him and on his body.
24 Though he dodges an iron weapon,
a bronze arrow will pierce him.
25 It will impale him and come out through his back;
the point will glisten as it protrudes through his gall bladder,
and he will be terrified.
26 “Total darkness has been reserved for his treasures;
a fire that has no need to be kindled will devour him
and consume whatever remains in his possession.[h]
27 Heaven will reveal his iniquity,
while the earth will rise up against him.
28 A flood will wash away his house;
dragging it away when God becomes angry.
29 This is what the wicked person inherits from God;
it is the inheritance that God appoints for him.”
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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