1: Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, 2: Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for [this] I make haste. 3: I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. 4: Knowest thou [not] this of old, since man was placed upon earth, 5: That the triumphing of the wicked [is] short, and the joy of the hypocrite [but] for a moment? 6: Though his excellence shall mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds; 7: [Yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they who have seen him shall say, Where [is] he? 8: He shall fly away as a dream, and will 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 to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods. 11: His bones are full [of the sin] of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust. 12: Though wickedness may be sweet in his mouth, [though] he may hide it under his tongue; 13: [Though] he may spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: 14: [Yet] his food in his bowels is turned, [it is] the gall of asps within him. 15: He hath 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 river, the floods, the brooks of honey and buttermilk. 18: That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow [it]: according to [his] substance [shall] the restitution [be], and he shall not rejoice [in it]. 19: Because he hath oppressed [and] hath forsaken the poor; [because] he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build. 20: Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. 21: There shall none of his food be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods. 22: In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: 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 wrath 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 drawn, and cometh out of the body; yes, the glittering sword cometh 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 wrath. 29: This [is] the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God.
