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Zophar the Naamathite answered:
2 “This is why my troubled thoughts compel me to answer,
and I am very distressed:
3 I have heard a rebuke that insults me,
and the essence of my understanding causes me to answer.
4 “Do you not know this from of old,
since man was placed on the earth,
5 that the elation of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless lasts only for a moment?
6 Though his haughtiness mounts up to the heavens,
and his head reaches to the clouds,
7 yet he perishes forever like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he’?
8 He will fly away like a dream, and not be found,
he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more;
nor will his place look on him again.
10 His children must make amends to the poor;
and his hands must give back his wealth.
11 His bones may be filled with youthful vigour,
but it will lie down with him in the dust.
12 “Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
though he hides it under his tongue,
13 though he treasures it and will not let it go,
but holds it in his mouth,
14 yet the food in his stomach turns sour,
it becomes the venom of asps within him.
15 He swallows down riches, but will vomit them up again;
God will cast them from his belly.
16 He will suck the poison of venemous serpents;
the viper’s fangs will kill him.
17 He will not see the flooding of the streams,
or the brooks flowing with honey and cream.
18 The fruit of his labour he must return,
and not swallow it down;
from the profits of his trading he will get no enjoyment.
19 For he has oppressed and abandoned the poor;
he has violently seizeda house that he did not build.
20 “Surely his appetite will never be satisfied;
he cannot escape from the captivation of his own greed.
21 There is nothing left for him to devour;
his prosperity does not endure.
22 In the fullness of his abundance he will be in distress;
the full force of his misery will overwhelm him.
23 When he is filling his belly,
God will send the fury of His wrath upon him,
and it will rain down on him while he is eating.
24 He will flee from the iron weapon,
but the arrow of bronze will strike him through.
25 He pulls it out of his back,
the gleaming point comes out of his liver.
Terrors will come upon him;
26total darkness is laid up for his treasures.
A fire not fanned will consume him,
it will devour what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him.
28 The possessions of his house will be removed,
and his goods will flow away in the day of God’s wrath.
29 This is the wicked man’s portion from God,
the heritage appointed to him by God.”