¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

• ²“Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,
• even by reason of my haste that is in me.

• ³I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame.
• The spirit of my understanding answers me.

• ⁴Don’t you know this from old time,
• since man was placed on earth,

• ⁵that the triumphing of the wicked is short,
• the joy of the godless but for a moment?

• ⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens,
• and his head reach to the clouds,

• ⁷yet he shall perish forever like his own dung.
• Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’

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

• ⁹The eye which saw him shall see him no more,
• neither shall his place any more see him.

• ¹⁰His children shall seek the favor of the poor.
• His hands shall give back his wealth.

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

• ¹²“Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth,
• though he hide it under his tongue,

• ¹³though he spare it, and will not let it go,
• but keep it still within his mouth;

• ¹⁴yet his food in his bowels is turned.
• It is cobra venom within him.

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

• ¹⁶He shall suck cobra venom.
• The viper’s tongue shall kill him.

• ¹⁷He shall not look at the rivers,
• the flowing streams of honey and butter.

• ¹⁸That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down.
• According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.

• ¹⁹For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor.
• He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

• ²⁰“Because he knew no quietness within him,
• he shall not save anything of that in which he delights.

• ²¹There was nothing left that he didn’t devour,
• therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

• ²²In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him.
• The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.

• ²³When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him.
• It will rain on him while he is eating.

• ²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon.
• The bronze arrow shall strike him through.

• ²⁵He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body.
• Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver.
• Terrors are on him.

• ²⁶All darkness is laid up for his treasures.
• An unfanned fire shall devour him.
• It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

• ²⁷The heavens shall reveal his iniquity.
• The earth shall rise up against him.

• ²⁸The increase of his house shall depart.
• They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.

• ²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
• the heritage appointed to him by God.”