1 Then Zophar the Naamathite responded and said:
2 “In truth, my troubled thoughts urge me to answer because of my feelings within me.
3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me and my understanding inspires me to reply.
4 Do you not know that it has been from old, since mankind was put on earth,
5 that the triumph of the wicked is short and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
6 Though his pride reaches to the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
7 he perishes forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
8 Like a dream, he flies away and they cannot find him; like a vision of the night, he is chased away.
9 The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more.
10 His children must recompense the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth.
11 His bones were full of his youthful vigor but it will lie down with him in the dust.
12 Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,
13 though he cannot bear to let it go and holds it in his mouth,
14 his food turns sour in his stomach; it becomes the venom of serpents within him.
15 He swallows riches and vomits them up; God empties it out of his stomach.
16 He sucks the poison of serpents; fangs of a viper kill him.
17 He will not look at streams, rivers flowing with honey and butter.
18 He gives back what he toiled for without swallowing it; he will not enjoy the riches of his trade.
19 For he has oppressed and abandoned the poor. He has seized a house he did not build.
20 For he knows no satisfaction from his greed, he cannot save himself by his desires.
21 Nothing remains for him to devour; therefore his prosperity will not last.
22 In the fullness of his plenty, he will be distressed; the full force of misery will come upon him.
23 While he is filling his belly, He will send the anger of His wrath against him, and rain it down it on him, on his flesh.
24 Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze bow pierces him through.
25 He pulls and it comes out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors come upon him!
26 Total darkness waits for his treasures; A fire not fanned will devour him; it will consume what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will expose his iniquity; the earth will rise up against him.
28 A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of His wrath.
29 Such is the wicked man’s lot from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”