Job Chapter 20
1 Zophar the Naamathite answered:
2 “My thoughts make me answer
because I’m in turmoil inside.
3 I’ve listened to your insults,
and I’m answering from what I understand.
4 Don’t you know from of old—
from the time God put people on earth—
5 that the triumph of sinners is short-lived;
the joy of the godless is temporary.
Job 20:1-5
6 Though they’re as tall as the sky,
though their heads are in the clouds,
7 they’ll perish forever like their own feces;
people that saw them before will say, ‘Where’d they go?’
8 They’ll fly away like a dream,
and nobody will find them;
they’ll vanish like a nightmare.
9 People that saw them before won’t see them again;
their family won’t have them around anymore.
10 Their offspring will have to give back
the wealth they’d confiscated
and beg from the poor
11 They may have youthful health,
but it’ll lie down with them in the dust.
Job 20:6-11
12 “Though evil is sweet in their mouth
and they hide it under their tongue,
13 though they like the taste of it
and won’t spit it out,
14 yet the food in their stomach will ferment
into the venom of asps.
15 Though they swallow wealth, they’ll vomit it up;
God will purge it from their stomach.
16 They’ll suck the poison of asps;
the viper’s tongue will slay them.
17 They won’t admire the streams
that flow with honey and curds.
18 They’ll lose everything they worked for and couldn’t swallow;
they won’t even enjoy the profits from their trading,
19 because they’ve oppressed the poor
and seized houses they didn’t build.
Job 20:12-19
20 “Since their greed is never satisfied,
they won’t keep anything they enjoy.
21 There won’t be anything left for them to devour;
their prosperity won’t last.
22 They’ll have so much stuff they can’t move;
the full force of their misery will stack up against them.
23 While they’re filling their stomach,
God will be sending his fierce anger at them
and raining it on them.
24 They may escape an iron weapon
only to have a bronze arrow point run them through.
25 It’s thrust will come out of their back;
the glittering point will puncture their gall;
death-terrors will descend on them.
Job 20:20-25
26 Their treasures are destined for total darkness;
unfanned flames will consume them;
whatever’s left in their tent will burn up.
27 Sky will reveal their sin;
earth will condemn them.
28 Others will carry off what’s in their house
at the time when God demonstrates his anger.
29 That’s sinful people’s plight,
the inheritance God decrees for them.”
Job 20:26-29