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1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
2 “Therefore my thoughts make me answer, because of the agitation within me.
3 I hear a rebuke that shames me, and my spirit answers me out of my understanding.
4 Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed upon the earth:
5 that the exulting of the wicked is brief, and the joy of the godless is only for a moment?
6 Though his height reaches the heavens and his head touches the clouds,
7 he will perish forever like his own dung;
those who saw him will say, ‘Where is he?’
8 He will fly away like a dream, and they will not find him;
he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will never behold him again.
10 His sons will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.
11 His bones are full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.
12 Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,
13 though he spares it and will not let it go, but holds it within his palate,
14 his food turns in his bowels;
it is the poison of cobras within him.
15 He swallows wealth, but he will vomit it up;
God will drive it out of his belly.
16 He will suck the poison of cobras;
a viper's tongue will kill him.
17 He will not see the streams, the rivers, the torrents of honey and curds.
18 He will give back what he toiled for and will not swallow it;
he will not rejoice in the wealth from his trade.
19 For he crushed and abandoned the poor;
he seized a house he did not build.
20 For he knew no rest in his belly;
he will not save what he coveted.
21 Nothing escapes his eating;
therefore his prosperity will not endure.
22 In the fullness of his abundance he will be in distress;
the hand of every sufferer will come against him.
23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him while he eats.
24 He will flee from an iron weapon;
a bronze bow will pierce him.
25 He draws it out, and it comes out of his body;
the gleaming point comes out of his gall.
Terrors come upon him.
26 All darkness is stored up for his treasures;
a fire that no one has fanned will consume him.
It will go ill with whoever remains in his tent.
27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 The goods of his house will depart, flowing away on the day of his anger.
29 This is the wicked man's portion from God, the inheritance appointed to him by God.”