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Zophar Speaks: Wickedness Receives Just Retribution

20Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
² ‘Pay attention! My thoughts urge me to answer,
   because of the agitation within me.
³ I hear censure that insults me,
   and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.
⁴ Do you not know this from of old,
   ever since mortals were placed on earth,
⁵ that the exulting of the wicked is short,
   and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
⁶ Even though they mount up high as the heavens,
   and their head reaches to the clouds,
⁷ they will perish for ever like their own dung;
   those who have seen them will say, “Where are they?”
⁸ They will fly away like a dream, and not be found;
   they will be chased away like a vision of the night.
⁹ The eye that saw them will see them no more,
   nor will their place behold them any longer.
¹⁰ Their children will seek the favour of the poor,
   and their hands will give back their wealth.
¹¹ Their bodies, once full of youth,
   will lie down in the dust with them.

¹² ‘Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth,
   though they hide it under their tongues,
¹³ though they are loath to let it go,
   and hold it in their mouths,
¹⁴ yet their food is turned in their stomachs;
   it is the venom of asps within them.
¹⁵ They swallow down riches and vomit them up again;
   God casts them out of their bellies.
¹⁶ They will suck the poison of asps;
   the tongue of a viper will kill them.
¹⁷ They will not look on the rivers,
   the streams flowing with honey and curds.
¹⁸ They will give back the fruit of their toil,
   and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of their trading
   they will get no enjoyment.
¹⁹ For they have crushed and abandoned the poor,
   they have seized a house that they did not build.

²⁰ ‘They knew no quiet in their bellies;
   in their greed they let nothing escape.
²¹ There was nothing left after they had eaten;
   therefore their prosperity will not endure.
²² In full sufficiency they will be in distress;
   all the force of misery will come upon them.
²³ To fill their belly to the full
   God^* will send his fierce anger into them,
   and rain it upon them as their food.^*
24 They will flee from an iron weapon;
   a bronze arrow will strike them through.
²⁵ It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,
   and the glittering point comes out of their gall;
   terrors come upon them.
²⁶ Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;
   a fire fanned by no one will devour them;
   what is left in their tent will be consumed.
²⁷ The heavens will reveal their iniquity,
   and the earth will rise up against them.
²⁸ The possessions of their house will be carried away,
   dragged off on the day of God’s^* wrath.
²⁹ This is the portion of the wicked from God,
   the heritage decreed for them by God.’

Job Replies: The Wicked Often Go Unpunished

21Then Job answered:
² ‘Listen carefully to my words,
   and let this be your consolation.
³ Bear with me, and I will speak;
   then after I have spoken, mock on.
⁴ As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals?
   Why should I not be impatient?
⁵ Look at me, and be appalled,
   and lay your hand upon your mouth.
⁶ When I think of it I am dismayed,
   and shuddering seizes my flesh.
⁷ Why do the wicked live on,
   reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
⁸ Their children are established in their presence,
   and their offspring before their eyes.
⁹ Their houses are safe from fear,
   and no rod of God is upon them.
¹⁰ Their bull breeds without fail;
   their cow calves and never miscarries.
¹¹ They send out their little ones like a flock,
   and their children dance around.
¹² They sing to the tambourine and the lyre,
   and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
¹³ They spend their days in prosperity,
   and in peace they go down to Sheol.
¹⁴ They say to God, “Leave us alone!
   We do not desire to know your ways.
¹⁵ What is the Almighty,^* that we should serve him?
   And what profit do we get if we pray to him?”
¹⁶ Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement?^*
   The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.

¹⁷ ‘How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
   How often does calamity come upon them?
   How often does God^* distribute pains in his anger?
¹⁸ How often are they like straw before the wind,
   and like chaff that the storm carries away?
¹⁹ You say, “God stores up their iniquity for their children.”
   Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it.
²⁰ Let their own eyes see their destruction,
   and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.^*
21 For what do they care for their household after them,
   when the number of their months is cut off?
²² Will any teach God knowledge,
   seeing that he judges those that are on high?
²³ One dies in full prosperity,
   being wholly at ease and secure,
²⁴ his loins full of milk
   and the marrow of his bones moist.
²⁵ Another dies in bitterness of soul,
   never having tasted of good.
²⁶ They lie down alike in the dust,
   and the worms cover them.

²⁷ ‘Oh, I know your thoughts,
   and your schemes to wrong me.
²⁸ For you say, “Where is the house of the prince?
   Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?”
²⁹ Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
   and do you not accept their testimony,
³⁰ that the wicked are spared on the day of calamity,
   and are rescued on the day of wrath?
³¹ Who declares their way to their face,
   and who repays them for what they have done?
³² When they are carried to the grave,
   a watch is kept over their tomb.
³³ The clods of the valley are sweet to them;
   everyone will follow after,
   and those who went before are innumerable.
³⁴ How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
   There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.’