20:1
Zophar of Naamath spoke next. He said:
20:2
My thoughts urge me to reply to this, and hence the impatience that grips me.
20:3
I have put up with prating that outrages me and now my mind inspires me with an answer.
20:4
Do you not know, that since time began and human beings were set on the earth,
20:5
the triumph of the wicked has always been brief, and the sinner's gladness has never lasted long?
20:6
Towering to the sky he may have been, his head touching the clouds;
20:7
but he vanishes, like a phantom, once for all, while those who used to see him, ask, 'Where is he?'
20:8
Like a dream that leaves no trace he takes his flight, like a vision in the night he flies away.
20:9
The eye accustomed to see him sees him no more, his home will never set eyes on him again.
20:10
His sons will have to reimburse the poor and his children pay back his riches.
20:11
His bones used to be full of youthful vigour: and there it lies, in the dust with him, now!
20:12
Evil was sweet to his mouth, he would shelter it under his tongue;
20:13
cultivating it carefully, he would let it linger on his palate.
20:14
Such food goes bad in his belly, working inside him like the poison of a viper.
20:15
Now he has to vomit up the wealth that he has swallowed, God makes him disgorge it.
20:16
He used to suck vipers' venom, and the tongue of the adder kills him.
20:17
No more will he know the streams of oil or the torrents of honey and cream.
20:18
When he gives back his winnings, his cheerfulness will fade, and the satisfied air he had when business was thriving.
20:19
Since he once destroyed the huts of the poor, plundering houses instead of building them up,
20:20
since his avarice could never be satisfied, now all his hoarding will not save him;
20:21
since nothing could escape his greed, his prosperity will not last.
20:22
When he has everything he needs, want will seize him, and misery will light on him with all its force.
20:23
On him God looses all his burning wrath, hurling against his flesh a hail of arrows.
20:24
If he escapes the weapons of iron, the bow of bronze will transfix him.
20:25
Out of his back sticks an arrow, from his gall a shining point. The terrors advance on him,
20:26
all the hidden darknesses are waiting to carry him off. A fire unlit by human hand devours him, and consumes what is left in his tent.
20:27
The heavens lay bare his iniquity, and the earth rises up against him.
20:28
The income of his house pours away, like the torrents, on the day of retribution.
20:29
Such is the fate God reserves for the wicked, the inheritance he assigns to the accursed!
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