JPS - Job - 20

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

20:2  Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of mine agitation that is in me.

20:3  I have heard the reproof which putteth me to shame, but out of my understanding my spirit answereth me.

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

20:5  That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless 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 that 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 which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

20:10  His children shall appease the poor, and his hands shall restore his wealth.

20:11  His bones are full of his youth, but it 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 will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth;

20:14  Yet his food 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; G-d 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 look upon the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and curd.

20:18  That which he laboured for shall he give back, and shall not swallow it down; according to the substance that he hath gotten, he shall not rejoice.

20:19  For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor; he hath violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

20:20  Because he knew no quietness within him, in his greed he suffered nought to escape,

20:21  There was nothing left that he devoured not--therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

20:22  In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits; the hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon him.

20:23  It shall be for the filling of his belly; He shall cast the fierceness of His wrath upon him, and shall cause it to rain upon him into his flesh.

20:24  If he flee from the iron weapon, the bow of brass shall strike him through.

20:25  He draweth it forth, and it cometh out of his body; yea, the glittering point cometh out of his gall; terrors are upon him.

20:26  All darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not blown by man shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tent.

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

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

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