| Chapter 20
|
| 1 | Then answered
Zophar the Naamathite, and said, |
| 2
| Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make
haste. |
| 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. |
| 11 |
His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in
the dust. |
| 12 | Though
wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; |
| 13 | Though he spare it, and
forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: |
|
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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
