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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.”

21Then Job answered: ²“Listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation. ³Bear with me, and I will speak; then after I have spoken, mock on. ⁴As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals? Why should I not be impatient? ⁵Look at me, and be appalled, and lay your hand upon your mouth. ⁶When I think of it I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.

⁷Why do the wicked live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? ⁸Their children are established in their presence, and their offspring before their eyes. ⁹Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. ¹⁰Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and never miscarries. ¹¹They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance around. ¹²They sing to the tambourine and the lyre, and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. ¹³They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. ¹⁴They say to God, ‘Leave us alone! We do not desire to know your ways. ¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’ ¹⁶Is 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? ¹⁸How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away? ¹⁹You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it. ²⁰Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty. ²¹For what do they care for their household after them, when the number of their months is cut off? ²²Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those that are on high? ²³One dies in full prosperity, being wholly at ease and secure, ²⁴his loins full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. ²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good. ²⁶They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.

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