Job 20
1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite and saide,
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered by saying:
2 Doubtlesse my thoughts cause me to answere, and therefore I make haste.
In response, various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind moves quickly through different ideas.
3 I haue heard the correction of my reproch: therefore the spirite of mine vnderstanding causeth me to answere.
The teaching you use to admonish me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding will respond for me.
4 Knowest thou not this of olde? and since God placed man vpon the earth,
This, I know, is from the beginning, from the time that man was set over the earth:
5 That the reioycing of the wicked is short, and that the ioy of hypocrites is but a moment?
that the praise of the impious shall be short, and the joy of the hypocrite lasts only a moment.
6 Though his excellencie mount vp to the heauen, and his head reache vnto the cloudes,
If his pride ascends even towards the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
7 Yet shall hee perish for euer, like his dung, and they which haue seene him, shall say, Where is hee?
in the end, he will be destroyed like a trash heap, and those who had seen him will say: “Where is he?”
8 He shall flee away as a dreame, and they shall not finde him, and shall passe away as a vision of the night,
Like a dream that flies away, he will not be found; he will pass away like a nightmare.
9 So that the eye which had seene him, shall do so no more, and his place shall see him no more.
The eyes that had seen him, will not see him; no longer will his own place admire him.
10 His children shall flatter the poore, and his hands shall restore his substance.
His sons will be worn away by poverty, and his own hands will deliver his grief to him.
11 His bones are full of the sinne of his youth, and it shall lie downe with him in the dust.
His bones will be filled with the vices of his youth, and they will sleep with him in the dust.
12 When wickednesse was sweete in his mouth, and he hid it vnder his tongue,
For, when evil will be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.
13 And fauoured it, and would not forsake it, but kept it close in his mouth,
He will permit it, and not abandon it, and he will conceal it in his throat.
14 Then his meat in his bowels was turned: the gall of Aspes was in the middes of him.
His bread in his belly will be turned into the venom of snakes within him.
15 He hath deuoured substance, and hee shall vomit it: for God shall drawe it out of his bellie.
The riches that he devours, he will vomit up, and from his stomach God will draw them out.
16 He shall sucke the gall of Aspes, and the vipers tongue shall slay him.
He will suck the head of snakes, and the tongue of the viper will kill him.
17 He shall not see the riuers, nor the floods and streames of honie and butter.
(May he never see the streams of the river, the torrents of honey and butter.)
18 He shall restore the labour, and shall deuoure no more: euen according to the substance shalbe his exchange, and he shall enioy it no more.
He will be repaid for all he has done, yet he will not be consumed; according to the multitude of his schemes, so also will he suffer.
19 For he hath vndone many: he hath forsaken the poore, and hath spoyled houses which he builded not.
For, having broken in, he stripped the poor. He has quickly stolen away a house he did not build.
20 Surely he shall feele no quietnes in his bodie, neither shall he reserue of that which he desired.
And yet his stomach will not be satisfied, and when he has the things he desires, he will not be able to possess them.
21 There shall none of his meate bee left: therefore none shall hope for his goods.
Nothing remained of his portion, and, because of this, nothing will continue of his kind.
22 When he shalbe filled with his abundance, he shalbe in paine, and the hand of all the wicked shall assaile him.
When he will be satisfied, he will be constrained; he will seethe, and all anguish will fall upon him.
23 He shall be about to fill his belly, but God shall sende vpon him his fierce wrath, and shall cause to rayne vpon him, euen vpon his meate.
May his stomach be filled, so that God may send forth the fury of his wrath to him and may rain down his battle upon him.
24 He shall flee from the yron weapons, and the bow of steele shall strike him through.
He will flee from weapons of iron, and he will fall in an arc of brass,
25 The arrowe is drawen out, and commeth forth of the body, and shineth of his gall, so feare commeth vpon him.
which had been drawn and had issued forth from its sheath, glittering in its bitterness: the horrible ones will go forth and approach over him.
26 All darkenes shalbe hid in his secret places: the fire that is not blowen, shall deuoure him, and that which remaineth in his tabernacle, shalbe destroyed.
All darkness has been hidden in his secrecy. A fire that has not been set will devour him; he will be thrown down and forsaken in his tabernacle.
27 The heauen shall declare his wickednes, and the earth shall rise vp against him.
The heavens will reveal his sinfulness, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 The increase of his house shall go away: it shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
The offspring of his house will be exposed; he will be pulled down in the day of God’s wrath.
29 This is the portion of the wicked man from God, and the heritage that he shall haue of God for his wordes.
This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his words from the Lord.
