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

¹⁰Their children will seek the favor of the poor, and their hands will give back their wealth. ¹¹Their 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, ¹³though they are loath to let it go, and hold it in their mouths, ¹⁴yet their food is turned in their stomachs; it is the venom of asps within them. ¹⁵They swallow down riches and vomit them up again; God casts them out of their bellies. ¹⁶They will suck the poison of asps; the tongue of a viper will kill them. ¹⁷They will not look on the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds. ¹⁸They 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. ¹⁹For 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. ²¹There was nothing left after they had eaten; therefore their prosperity will not endure. ²²In full sufficiency they will be in distress; all the force of misery will come upon them.

²³To fill their belly to the full God will send his fierce anger into them, and rain it upon them as their food. ²⁴They will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike them through. ²⁵It is drawn forth and comes out of their body, and the glittering point comes out of their gall; terrors come upon them. ²⁶Utter 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. ²⁷The heavens will reveal their iniquity, and the earth will rise up against them. ²⁸The possessions of their house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God’s wrath. ²⁹This is the portion of the wicked from God, the heritage decreed for them by God.”