20:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

20:2  "My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer
because I am greatly disturbed.

20:3  I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
and my understanding inspires me to reply.

20:4  "Surely you know how it has been from of old,
ever since man was placed on the earth,

20:5  that the mirth of the wicked is brief,
the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

20:6  Though his pride reaches to the heavens
and his head touches the clouds,

20:7  he will perish forever, like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'

20:8  Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,
banished like a vision of the night.

20:9  The eye that saw him will not see him again;
his place will look on him no more.

20:10  His children must make amends to the poor;
his own hands must give back his wealth.

20:11  The youthful vigor that fills his bones
will lie with him in the dust.

20:12  "Though evil is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,

20:13  though he cannot bear to let it go
and keeps it in his mouth,

20:14  yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
it will become the venom of serpents within him.

20:15  He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
God will make his stomach vomit them up.

20:16  He will suck the poison of serpents;
the fangs of an adder will kill him.

20:17  He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

20:18  What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;
he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.

20:19  For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute;
he has seized houses he did not build.

20:20  "Surely he will have no respite from his craving;
he cannot save himself by his treasure.

20:21  Nothing is left for him to devour;
his prosperity will not endure.

20:22  In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him;
the full force of misery will come upon him.

20:23  When he has filled his belly,
God will vent his burning anger against him
and rain down his blows upon him.

20:24  Though he flees from an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.

20:25  He pulls it out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;

20:26  total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
and devour what is left in his tent.

20:27  The heavens will expose his guilt;
the earth will rise up against him.

20:28  A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters on the day of God's wrath.

20:29  Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
the heritage appointed for them by God."