Job 20
20
Zophar
1-2Job, you upset me. Now I'm impatient to answer.
3What you have said is an insult,
but I know how to reply to you.
4Surely you know that from ancient times,
when human beings were first placed on earth,
5no wicked people have been happy for long.
6They may grow great, towering to the sky,
so great that their heads reach the clouds,
7but they will be blown away like dust.
Those who used to know them
will wonder where they have gone.
8They will vanish like a dream, like a vision at night,
and never be seen again.
9The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;
10and their children will make good what they stole from the poor.
11Their bodies used to be young and vigorous,
but soon they will turn to dust.
12-13Evil tastes so good to them
that they keep some in their mouths to enjoy its flavour.
14But in their stomachs the food turns bitter,
as bitter as any poison could be.
15The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole;
God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.
16What evil people swallow is like poison;
it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.
17They will not live to see rivers of olive oil#20.17 Probable text They will… olive oil; Hebrew unclear.
or streams that flow with milk and honey.
18They will have to give up all they have worked for;
they will have no chance to enjoy their wealth,
19because they oppressed and neglected the poor
and seized houses someone else had built.
20Their greed is never satisfied.
21When they eat, there is nothing left over,
but now their prosperity comes to an end.
22At the height of their success
all the weight of misery will crush them.
23Let them eat all they want!
God will punish them in fury and anger.
24When they try to escape from an iron sword,
a bronze bow will shoot them down.
25Arrows stick through their bodies;
the shiny points drip with their blood,
and terror grips their hearts.
26Everything they have saved is destroyed;
a fire not lit by human hands
burns them and all their families.
27Heaven reveals their sin,
and the earth gives testimony against them.
28All their wealth will be destroyed
in the flood of God's anger.
29This is the fate of the wicked,
the fate that God assigns to them.
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Job 20: GNBDC
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Job 20
20
Zophar
1Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2“My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer
because I am greatly disturbed.
3I hear a rebuke that dishonors me,
and my understanding inspires me to reply.
4“Surely you know how it has been from of old,
ever since mankind#20:4 Or Adam was placed on the earth,
5that the mirth of the wicked is brief,
the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
6Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens
and his head touches the clouds,
7he will perish forever, like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
8Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found,
banished like a vision of the night.
9The eye that saw him will not see him again;
his place will look on him no more.
10His children must make amends to the poor;
his own hands must give back his wealth.
11The youthful vigor that fills his bones
will lie with him in the dust.
12“Though evil is sweet in his mouth
and he hides it under his tongue,
13though he cannot bear to let it go
and lets it linger in his mouth,
14yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
it will become the venom of serpents within him.
15He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
God will make his stomach vomit them up.
16He will suck the poison of serpents;
the fangs of an adder will kill him.
17He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
18What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;
he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
19For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute;
he has seized houses he did not build.
20“Surely he will have no respite from his craving;
he cannot save himself by his treasure.
21Nothing is left for him to devour;
his prosperity will not endure.
22In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him;
the full force of misery will come upon him.
23When he has filled his belly,
God will vent his burning anger against him
and rain down his blows on him.
24Though he flees from an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
25He pulls it out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;
26total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
and devour what is left in his tent.
27The heavens will expose his guilt;
the earth will rise up against him.
28A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters#20:28 Or The possessions in his house will be carried off, / washed away on the day of God’s wrath.
29Such is the fate God allots the wicked,
the heritage appointed for them by God.”
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