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.”
Job 20
Christian Standard Bible
Zophar Speaks
20 Then Zophar the Naamathite(A) replied:
2 This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer,
because I am upset![a]
3 I have heard a rebuke that insults me,
and my understanding[b] makes me reply.(B)
4 Don’t you know that ever since antiquity,
from the time a human was placed on earth,
5 the joy of the wicked has been brief
and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?(C)
6 Though his arrogance reaches heaven,
and his head touches the clouds,(D)
7 he will vanish forever like his own dung.
Those who know[c] him will ask, “Where is he?” (E)
8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found;
he will be chased away like a vision in the night.(F)
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more,(G)
and his household will no longer see him.(H)
10 His children will beg from[d] the poor,
for his own hands must give back his wealth.
11 His frame may be full of youthful vigor,
but it will lie down with him in dust.(I)
12 Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth
and he conceals it under his tongue,
13 though he cherishes it and will not let it go
but keeps it in his mouth,(J)
14 yet the food in his stomach turns
into cobras’ venom inside him.
15 He swallows wealth but must vomit it up;
God will force it from his stomach.
16 He will suck the poison of cobras;
a viper’s fangs[e] will kill him.(K)
17 He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and curds.(L)
18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;
he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.
19 For he oppressed and abandoned the poor;
he seized a house he did not build.(M)
20 Because his appetite is never satisfied,[f]
he does not let anything he desires escape.
21 Nothing is left for him to consume;(N)
therefore, his prosperity will not last.
22 At the height of his success[g] distress will come to him;(O)
the full weight of misery[h] will crush him.
23 When he fills his stomach,
God will send his burning anger against him,
raining(P) it down on him while he is eating.[i]
24 If he flees from an iron weapon,
an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.
25 He pulls it out of his back,
the flashing tip out of his liver.[j]
Terrors come over him.(Q)
26 Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.
A fire unfanned by human hands will consume(R) him;
it will feed on what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will expose his iniquity,(S)
and the earth will rise up against him.(T)
28 The possessions in his house will be removed,
flowing away on the day of God’s anger.
29 This is the wicked person’s lot(U) from God,
the inheritance God ordained for him.
Footnotes
- 20:2 Lit because of my feeling within me
- 20:3 Lit and a spirit from my understanding
- 20:7 Lit have seen
- 20:10 Or children must compensate
- 20:16 Lit tongue
- 20:20 Lit Because he does not know ease in his stomach
- 20:22 Lit In the fullness of his excess
- 20:22 Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg; other Hb mss read the hand of everyone in misery
- 20:23 Text emended; MT reads him, against his flesh
- 20:25 Or gallbladder
Jób 20
Hungarian Bible: Easy-to-Read Version
Cófár prédikál Jóbnak
20 Ezután a naamái Cófár szólalt meg:
2 „Gondolataim felkavarják lelkemet,
sürgetnek, hogy válaszoljak neked, Jób.
3 Hiszen te állandóan kioktatsz,
és megszégyenítesz minket!
De majd én bölcsen megfelelek!
4-5 Tudod-e, hogy a gonoszok nem örülhetnek sokáig?!
Tudod-e, hogy az istentelenek vigadozása
csak egy pillanatig tart?!
Mióta Isten Ádámot a Földre helyezte,
ez mindig is így volt!
6 Mert ha büszkeségük az égig érne is,
ha fejüket a felhőkig emelik is a gonoszok,
7 mégis eltűnnek örökre!
Eltűnnek, mint mezőn a ganéj.
Akik látták őket ezt kérdezik:
»Hová lettek oly hirtelen?«
8 Bizony, az istentelen eltűnik, mint az álom,
nem látja többé senki sem.
Elfelejtik, mint a rossz álmot.
9 Akik látták, nem láthatják soha többé.
Otthona is elfelejti, nem emlékszik rá.
10 Amit apjuk elvett a szegényektől,
gyermekei fizetik vissza.
Bizony, a gonosz ki kell engedje markából
minden vagyonát!
11 Még ha fiatal is, erőtől duzzad,
hirtelen mégis a porban fekszik,
egyszerre odavan.
12 A gonosznak édes a gonoszság,
szinte szájában tartogatja,
nyelve alatt rejtegeti sokáig,
13 sajnálja lenyelni,
hosszan ízlelgeti.
14 De gyomrában a gonoszság megkeseredik,
s mint a kígyóméreg, olyan lesz a belsejében.
15 Az istentelen mohón nyeli a gazdagságot,
de végül mégis kihányja.
Isten kihajt belőle mindent, amit benyelt.
16 Vipera mérgét szívja magába,
kígyómarás öli meg hirtelen,
17 s nem élvezheti többé a gazdagságát:
a tejjel-mézzel folyó patakokat.
18 Vissza kell adja, amit megszerzett,
nem örülhet vagyonának, amelyért dolgozott.
19 Mert elnyomta a szegényeket,
és nem törődött nyomorúságukkal,
erőszakkal elvette házaikat,
amelyeket nem ő épített.
20 A gonoszoknak semmi sem elég,
kapzsiságuk nem ismer határt,
étvágyuk elől semmi sem menekülhet,
21 utánuk csak pusztaság marad.
Így emésztik el a szegényeket,
ezért a gonoszok jóléte nem tart sokáig.
22 Amikor már mindent összeharácsolt,
és bőségben tobzódik,
akkor szakad rá hirtelen a szükség és szegénység.
Bizony, egyszerre éri mindenféle csapás,
23 mert Isten rázúdítja haragja tüzét,
s jóllakatja a gonoszt veszedelemmel.
Záporoznak rá a harag csapásai,
s ezzel kell töltenie hasát kenyér helyett.
24 Ha elfut a gonosz az acélkard elől,
átveri mellét a bronz nyílvessző.
25 Úgy átfúrja testét a nyílvessző,
hogy hátából áll ki a hegye.
Villámló nyílhegy fúródik májába,
s a rémület tiporja földre.
26 Féltve őrzött kincseit elpusztítják,
őt magát tűz emészti meg,
amelyet nem emberkéz gyújtott.
Tűz, amely mindent feléget,
ami még házában megmaradt.
27 A gonosz bűneit napvilágra hozza az ég,
s felkel a föld, hogy tanúskodjon ellene.
28 Árvíz sodorja el házát, családját, mindenét:
elsöpri Isten haragja mindenestül azon a napon.
29 Bizony, Isten így bánik a gonoszokkal,
ezt kapják örökségül tőle, mert így rendelkezett.”
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
Copyright © 2003, 2012 by World Bible Translation Center