1 | Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, |
2 | Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for [this] I make haste. |
3 | I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. |
4 | Knowest thou [not] this of old, since man was placed upon earth, |
5 | That the triumphing of the wicked [is] short, and the joy of the hypocrite [but] for a moment? |
6 | Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; |
7 | [Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where [is] he? |
8 | He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. |
9 | The eye also [which] saw him shall [see him] no more; neither shall his place any more behold him. |
10 | His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods. |
11 | His bones are full [of the sin] of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust. |
12 | Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, [though] he hide it under his tongue; |
13 | [Though] he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: |
14 | [Yet] his meat in his bowels is turned, [it is] the gall of asps within him. |
15 | He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. |
16 | He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him. |
17 | He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. |
18 | That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow [it] down: according to [his] substance [shall] the restitution [be], and he shall not rejoice [therein]. |
19 | Because he hath oppressed [and] hath forsaken the poor; [because] he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not; |
20 | Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. |
21 | There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods. |
22 | In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. |
23 | [When] he is about to fill his belly, [God] shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain [it] upon him while he is eating. |
24 | He shall flee from the iron weapon, [and] the bow of steel shall strike him through. |
25 | It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors [are] upon him. |
26 | All darkness [shall be] hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle. |
27 | The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. |
28 | The increase of his house shall depart, [and his goods] shall flow away in the day of his wrath. |
29 | This [is] the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God. |