Job 20 · איוב

Then answered Żofar the Na῾amatite, and said,

Therefore my thoughts answer me, even because of my agitation that is in me.

I have heard the censure which insults me, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer.

Knowst thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach the clouds;

yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they who have seen him shall say, Where is he?

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

The eye which saw him shall see him no more; nor shall his place any more behold him.

His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall give back that which he has robbed.

His bones are full of his youth; yet shall it lie down with him in the dust.

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

though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

yet his food in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

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

He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the streams of honey and curd.

That which he laboured for he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down: from the riches of his trading he will have no enjoyment.

Because he has oppressed and has forsaken the poor; he has violently taken away a house which he did not build;

because his greed knew no rest, he will not save anything over of that which he coveted.

None of his food shall be left; therefore shall his goods not prosper.

In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: all the force of misery shall come upon him.

When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him into his flesh.

He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of brass shall strike him through.

It is drawn, and comes out of his body; yea, the glittering blade comes out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

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

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

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

This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God.