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Chapter 20 |
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1 | Then answered Zophar the Naamathite,
and said, |
| 2
| Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this
I make haste. |
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3 | I have heard the check of my reproach, and the
spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. |
| 4 | Knowest thou
not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, |
| 5 | That the
triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a
moment? |
| 6 |
Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head
reach unto the clouds; |
| 7 | Yet he shall perish for ever like his own
dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? |
| 8 | He shall fly
away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a
vision of the night. |
| 9 | The eye also which saw him shall see him no
more; neither shall his place any more behold him. |
| 10 | His children
shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.
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| 11 | His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with
him in the dust. |
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12 | Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he
hide it under his tongue; |
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13 | Though he spare it, and forsake it
not; but keep it still within his mouth: |
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14 | Yet his meat in his bowels
is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. |
| 15 | He hath
swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them
out of his belly. |
| 16 | He shall suck the poison of asps: the
viper's tongue shall slay him. |
| 17 | He shall not see the rivers,
the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. |
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18 | That which he laboured
for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance
shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein. |
| 19 | Because
he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken
away an house which he builded not; |
| 20 | Surely he shall not feel
quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. |
| 21 |
There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his
goods. |
| 22
| In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits:
every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. |
| 23 | When he is
about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and
shall rain it upon him while he is eating. |
|
24 | He shall flee from the
iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. |
| 25 | It is
drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his
gall: terrors are upon him. |
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26 | All darkness shall be hid in his
secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him
that is left in his tabernacle. |
| 27 | The heaven shall reveal his
iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. |
| 28 | The increase
of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his
wrath. |
| 29
| This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the
heritage appointed unto him by God. |
