Job 20 · Clearspring

Zophar: Destruction Awaits the Wicked

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,+ ²“Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.+ ³I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.+ ⁴Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,+ ⁵that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?+ ⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,+ ⁷yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’+ ⁸He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.+ ⁹The eye which saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more see him.+ ¹⁰His children shall seek the favor of the poor. His hands shall give back his wealth.+ ¹¹His bones are full of his youth, but youth shall lie down with him in the dust.+ ¹²“Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,+ ¹³though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth;+ ¹⁴yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.+ ¹⁵He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.+ ¹⁶He shall suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue shall kill him.+ ¹⁷He shall not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.+ ¹⁸That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.+ ¹⁹For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.+ ²⁰“Because he knew no quietness within him, he shall not save anything of that in which he delights.+ ²¹There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity shall not endure.+ ²²In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.+ ²³When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.+ ²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow shall strike him through.+ ²⁵He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.+ ²⁶All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent.+ ²⁷The heavens shall reveal his iniquity. The earth shall rise up against him.+ ²⁸The increase of his house shall depart. They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.+ ²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”+

Zophar: Destruction Awaits the Wicked

Study Job 20