Zophar Answers Again
Zophar answers out of his own agitation with a portrait of the wicked man's brief triumph: he swallows riches and vomits them up, keeps evil under his tongue until it turns to cobra venom. He calls this the portion God appoints, and offers nothing else.
20 1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: 2"This is why my troubled thoughts compel me to answer, because of the turmoil within me. 3I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and out of my understanding a spirit prompts me to reply. 4Surely you know how it has been from ancient times, ever since mankind was placed on the earth: 5the triumph of the wicked is brief, and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment. 6Though his pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, 7he will perish forever, like his own waste; those who had seen him will ask, 'Where is he?' 8He will fly away like a dream, never to be found, chased off like a vision of the night. 9The eye that saw him will see him no more; his place will look on him no longer. 10His children will beg from the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth. 11The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust. 12Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue, 13though he is loath to let it go and keeps it in his mouth, 14yet his food turns sour in his stomach; it becomes the venom of cobras within him. 15He swallows down riches but vomits them up; God drives them out of his belly. 16He sucks the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper kill him. 17He will never look on the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and curds. 18He must give back the fruit of his toil without swallowing it; he will not enjoy the profit of his trading. 19For he crushed and abandoned the poor; he seized a house he did not build. 20Because his gut knew no peace, he will not escape with the things he craved. 21Nothing was left for him to devour; therefore his prosperity will not endure. 22In the fullness of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full weight of misery will come upon him. 23When he has filled his belly, God will unleash his burning anger against him and rain it down on him as his food. 24Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze arrow will pierce him through. 25He pulls it out, and it comes from his body; the glittering point comes out of his gall. Terrors fall upon him. 26Total darkness lies in wait for his treasures; a fire no one kindled will consume him and devour whatever is left in his tent. 27The heavens will expose his guilt, and the earth will rise up against him. 28All the wealth of his house will be carried off, swept away in the day of God's wrath. 29This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage appointed for him by God."
