20:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

20:2 Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.

20:3 I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

20:4 Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

20:6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

20:7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

20:8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

20:9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

20:10 His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

20:11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

20:12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

20:13 Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

20:14 Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

20:15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.

20:16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.

20:17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

20:18 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.

20:19 Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

20:20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

20:21 There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

20:22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

20:23 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.

20:24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

20:25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

20:26 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.

20:27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

20:28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

20:29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.