Job 20

1 Then Zophar replied,

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

2 “I am very perturbed about what you have said, so I want to reply very quickly.

Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for [this] I make haste.

3 By saying these things you have insulted me, but I know how (OR, because I understand very much) I can reply to you.

I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

4 “Do you not know that from long ago, ever since people were first put on the earth,

Knowest thou [not] this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

5 wicked people [like you] do not continue to rejoice for a long time, ungodly people are happy only for a (moment/very short time) [HYP]?

That the triumphing of the wicked [is] short, and the joy of the hypocrite [but] for a moment?

6 [Even] though their reputation/pride reaches up to the sky and their fame goes up as high as the clouds,

Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

7 they will disappear forever, like their own dung, and those who knew them will ask, ‘(Where did they go/What happened to them)?’

[Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where [is] he?

8 They will be forgotten like [SIM] a dream is, and they will exist no more. They will vanish, like visions [that people see] during the night.

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 Those who saw those people previously will never see them again; even their families [MTY] will not see them any more.

The eye also [which] saw him shall [see him] no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

10 Their children will be forced to return the valuable things that those children stole from poor people [DOU].

His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

11 Previously their bodies were young and strong, but they will die and [their bodies will] be buried in the ground.

His bones are full [of the sin] of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

12 “Doing wicked things was like having sweet food in their mouths, and they wanted to continue to taste it.

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, [though] he hide it under his tongue;

13 And they did not want to stop doing those things,

[Though] he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

14 [but some day] the evil things that they enjoyed doing will become like food [that they swallow] [and which becomes] as bitter as snake venom.

[Yet] his meat in his bowels is turned, [it is] the gall of asps within him.

15 Wicked people will not continue to keep the money they have accumulated, like people do not keep the food that they vomit. God takes their wealth from them.

He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.

16 What wicked people do is [like] [MET] swallowing snake venom; it will kill them like [MET] the bite of a poisonous snake kills people.

He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

17 They will not remain alive to see abundant blessings [IDM] [from God], milk and olive oil and honey, that are [so abundant they are] like [MET] a stream that flows by.

He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

18 They will be forced to give back the things that they stole from the poor; they will not be able to continue to enjoy those things. They will not remain happy because of what they got from their businesses,

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 they oppressed poor people and refused to help them, and they took other people’s houses [by cheating them].

Because he hath oppressed [and] hath forsaken the poor; [because] he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

20 “They were always greedy and never satisfied. They just keep dreaming about owning more and more things.

Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

21 When they finished eating their food, there was never anything left over [because they had greedily eaten it all]; but now their prosperity will end.

There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

22 When they are extremely prosperous/wealthy, they will suddenly experience a lot of trouble. (Misery will strike them and crush them [PRS]/They will suffer very greatly).

In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

23 When the wicked people are filling their stomachs, God will show that he is very angry with them and punish them; the punishment [that he gives them] will be like [MET] rain falling on them.

[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 They will try to escape from [being killed by] iron weapons, but arrows with bronze points will pierce them.

He shall flee from the iron weapon, [and] the bow of steel shall strike him through.

25 The arrows will [go completely through their bodies and] stick out of their backs; the shiny points of the arrows will have blood dripping from them, and those wicked people will be terrified.

It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors [are] upon him.

26 Their valuable possessions will all be destroyed; a fire that is not lit by humans, [but by God, ] will burn them up and also destroy the things that are left in their tents.

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 [angels in] heaven [MTY] will reveal the sins that those wicked people have committed, and [people on] earth will stand up and testify against them.

The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

28 When God punishes [MTY] [people], all the possessions in the wicked people’s houses will be carried away by a flood.

The increase of his house shall depart, [and his goods] shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

29 That is what will happen to wicked people [like you]; that is what God has decided will happen to them.”

This [is] the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.