Job 20

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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The joy of the godless lasts only a moment

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: ²So my troubled thoughts urge me to reply, \q because I am deeply stirred. ³I have heard a rebuke that insults me, \q and out of my understanding my spirit gives me a reply. ⁴Surely you know how it has been from of old, \q ever since humans were placed on the earth, ⁵that the triumph of the wicked is brief, \q and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment. ⁶Though their pride rises up to the heavens \q and their heads touch the clouds, ⁷they will perish forever like their own dung; \q those who used to see them will ask, “Where are they?” ⁸They will fly away like a dream and not be found; \q they will be driven off like a vision in the night. ⁹The eye that once saw them will not see them again; \q their place will look on them no more. ¹⁰Their children will have to make amends to the poor; \q their own hands must give back their wealth. ¹¹Their bones were full of youthful strength, \q but it will lie down with them in the dust. ¹²Though evil tastes sweet in their mouth \q and they hide it under their tongue, ¹³though they cannot bear to let it go \q but keep it in their mouth, ¹⁴their food turns sour in their stomach; \q it becomes the venom of cobras inside them. ¹⁵They swallow riches but vomit them up again; \q God makes their stomach throw them out. ¹⁶They suck the poison of cobras; \q the viper’s fangs will kill them. ¹⁷They will never enjoy the streams, \q the rivers flowing with honey and cream. ¹⁸They must give back what they toiled for and cannot swallow it; \q they get no joy from the profits of their trading. ¹⁹For they crushed the poor and left them destitute; \q they seized houses they had not built. ²⁰Because their greed was never satisfied, \q they will not save any of the things they prized. ²¹Nothing was left after they had eaten; \q therefore their prosperity will not last. ²²At the height of their plenty, distress will overtake them; \q every hand of the wretched will turn against them. ²³When they are about to fill their stomach, \q God will send his burning anger against them \q and rain it down on them as their food. ²⁴They may run from an iron weapon, \q but an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce them. ²⁵It is pulled out and comes out of their back, \q the gleaming point out of their gall; \q terrors come over them. ²⁶Total darkness is stored up for their treasures. \q A fire no one fanned will consume them, \q and anyone left in their tent will come to harm. ²⁷The heavens will expose their guilt, \q and the earth will rise up against them. ²⁸The wealth of their house will be carried away, \q swept off like floodwaters on the day of God’s anger. ²⁹This is what God gives to the wicked, \q the heritage God has appointed for them.