1 Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered and said,
2 My thoughts certainly cause me to answer, and therefore, I make haste.
3 I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my intelligence causes me to answer.
4 Dost thou not know this that always was, 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 excellency mounts up to the heavens, and his head reaches unto the clouds,
7 [yet] he shall perish for ever like his own dung; those who have seen him shall say, What is become of him?
8 He shall fly away as a dream and shall not be found: [yea], he shall flee away as a vision of the night.
9 The eye [which] saw him shall [see him] no more; neither shall his place behold him any more.
10 His poor sons shall go forth begging, and their hands shall restore that which he stole.
11 His bones are full [of the sins] of his youth, which shall be buried with him in the dust.
12 If wickedness was sweet in his mouth, if he hid it under his tongue,
13 if it seemed good unto him, and he did not forsake it, but savored it within his mouth,
14 his food shall be changed in his bowels, [it shall be] the gall of asps within him.
15 He has swallowed down riches, but 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 brooks of honey and butter.
18 He shall restore the work [that was not his]; according to the substance that he took; neither shall he devour, nor rejoice.
19 Because he oppressed [and] forsook the poor; [because] he has violently taken away houses which he did not build,
20 therefore, he shall not feel quietness in his belly; he shall not escape with that which he desired.
21 Nothing is left that he did not eat; therefore, his goods shall not last.
22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, he shall come into anguish; the hands of all 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 and upon his food.
24 He shall flee from the weapons of iron, [and] the bow of bronze shall strike him through.
25 He shall draw forth [an arrow] from his quiver, and [like] lightning it shall strike through his gall; terrors shall come upon him.
26 All darkness is kept for his secrets; a fire not blown shall consume him; his successor shall be broken in his tent.
27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
28 The increase of his house shall be taken captive; they shall be scattered in the day of his wrath.
29 This [is] the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage that God appoints unto him by his word.: