1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
2. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and because of this I make haste.
3. I have heard the rebuke against my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer.
4. Do you not know this of old, since man was placed upon earth,
5. That the triumph of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
6. Though his excellence should mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds;
7. Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: those who have seen him shall say, Where is he?
8. He shall fly away as a dream, and shall 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 the favor of the poor, and his hands shall give back their goods.
11. His bones are full of the sin of his youth, but his sin shall lie down with him in the dust.
12. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue;
13. Though he saves it, and does not forsake it; but still keeps it within his mouth:
14. Yet his food in his bowels is gone bad, it is the gall of asps within him.
15. He has 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 rivers, the floods, the streams of honey and butter.
18. That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his possessions shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
19. Because he has oppressed and has forsaken the poor; because he has violently taken away a house which he did not build;
20. Surely he shall not feel contentment in his belly, he shall not save any of that which he desired.
21. None of his food shall be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.
22. In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in difficulty: 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 anger 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 pulled, and comes out of the body; yea, the glittering sword comes 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 anger.
29. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God.
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