20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

20:2 "My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.

20:3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply.

20:4 "Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since man was placed on the earth,

20:5 that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

20:6 Though his pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,

20:7 he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'

20:8 Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night.

20:9 The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more.

20:10 His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth.

20:11 The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.

20:12 "Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,

20:13 though he cannot bear to let it go and keeps it in his mouth,

20:14 yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him.

20:15 He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up.

20:16 He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him.

20:17 He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

20:18 What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.

20:19 For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.

20:20 "Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure.

20:21 Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure.

20:22 In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him.

20:23 When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows upon him.

20:24 Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.

20:25 He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him;

20:26 total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.

20:27 The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him.

20:28 A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God's wrath.

20:29 Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God."