1Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

2Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste. ¹⁷³

3I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

4Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

5That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? ¹⁷⁴

6Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; ¹⁷⁵

7Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

8He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

9The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

10His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods. ¹⁷⁶

11His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

12Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

13Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: ¹⁷⁷

14Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

15He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.

16He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

17He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. ¹⁷⁸

18That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein. ¹⁷⁹

19Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not; ¹⁸⁰

20Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. ¹⁸¹

21There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods. ¹⁸²

22In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. ¹⁸³

23When 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.

24He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

25It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

26All 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.

27The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

28The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God. ¹⁸⁴