| 1 | Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, |
| 2 | Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste. |
| 3 | I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. |
| 4 | Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, |
| 5 | That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? |
| 6 | Though his excellence shall mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds; |
| 7 | Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they who have seen him shall say, Where is he? |
| 8 | He shall fly away as a dream, and will not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. |
| 9 | The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him. |
| 10 | His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods. |
| 11 | His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust. |
| 12 | Though wickedness may be sweet in his mouth, though he may hide it under his tongue; |
| 13 | Though he may spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: |
| 14 | Yet his food in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. |
| 15 | He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. |
| 16 | He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him. |
| 17 | He shall not see the river, the floods, the brooks of honey and buttermilk. |
| 18 | That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice in it. |
| 19 | Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build. |
| 20 | Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. |
| 21 | There shall none of his food be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods. |
| 22 | In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. |
| 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. |
| 24 | He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. |
| 25 | It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yes, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him. |
| 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. |
| 27 | The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. |
| 28 | The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. |
| 29 | This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God. |