Job 20

Job 20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

Job 20:2 This is why my disquieting thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset!

Job 20:3 I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my insight[1] makes me reply.

Job 20:4 Don’t you know that ever since antiquity, from the time a human was placed on the land,

Job 20:5 the joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?

Job 20:6 Though his arrogance reaches the sky, and his head touches the clouds,

Job 20:7 he will vanish forever like his own dung. Those who know him will ask, “Where is he?”

Job 20:8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

Job 20:9 The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer see him.

Job 20:10 His children will beg from the poor, because his own hands must give back his wealth.

Job 20:11 His frame might be full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.

Job 20:12 Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,

Job 20:13 though he cherishes it and will not let it go, but keeps it in his mouth,

Job 20:14 yet the food in his stomach turns into cobras’ venom inside him.

Job 20:15 He swallows wealth but must vomit it up; God will force it from his stomach.

Job 20:16 He will suck the poison of cobras; a viper’s fangs will kill him.

Job 20:17 He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and curds.

Job 20:18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.

Job 20:19 For he oppressed and abandoned the poor; he seized a house he did not build.

Job 20:20 Because his appetite is never satisfied, he does not let anything he desires escape.

Job 20:21 Nothing is left for him to consume; therefore, his prosperity will not last.

Job 20:22 At the height of his success, distress will come to him; the full weight of misery will crush him.

Job 20:23 When he fills his stomach, God will send his burning anger against him, raining it down on him while he is eating.

Job 20:24 If he flees from an iron weapon, an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.

Job 20:25 He pulls it out of his back, the flashing tip out of his liver. Terrors come over him.

Job 20:26 Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned by human hands will consume him; it will feed on what is left in his tent.

Job 20:27 The sky will expose his iniquity, and the ground will revolt against him.

Job 20:28 The possessions in his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s anger.

Job 20:29 This is the wicked person’s due from God, the inheritance God ordained for him.

[1] בִּינָה = insight. Job 20:3; 28:12, 20, 28; 34:16; 38:4, 36; 39:17, 26.

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Jefferson Vann is pastor of Piney Grove Advent Christian Church in Delco, North Carolina. View all posts by Jefferson Vann