Zophar's Second Speech
Your Words Are Disturbing
1 Zophar from Naamah said:
2 Your words are disturbing;
now I must speak.
3 You have accused
and insulted me,
and reason requires a reply.
4 Since the time of creation,
everyone has known
5 that sinful people are happy
for only a while.
6 Though their pride and power
may reach to the sky,
7 they will disappear like dust,
and those who knew them
will wonder what happened.
8 They will be forgotten
like a dream
9 and vanish from the sight
of family and friends.
10 Their children will have to repay
what the parents took
from the poor.
11 Indeed, the wicked will die
and go to their graves
in the prime of life.
Sinners Love the Taste of Sin
12 Sinners love the taste of sin;
they relish every bite
13 and swallow it slowly.
14 But their food will turn sour
and poison their stomachs.
15 Then God will make them lose
the wealth they gobbled up.
16 They will die from the fangs
of poisonous snakes
17 and never enjoy rivers flowing
with milk and honey.
18 Their hard work will result
in nothing gained,
19 because they cheated the poor
and took their homes.
20 Greedy people want everything
and are never satisfied.
21 But when nothing remains
for them to grab,
they will be nothing.
22 Once they have everything,
distress and despair
will strike them down,
23 and God will make them swallow
his blazing anger.
24 While running from iron spears,
they will be killed
by arrows of bronze,
25 whose shining tips go straight
through their bodies.
They will be trapped by terror,
26 and what they treasure most
will be lost in the dark.
God will send flames
to destroy them in their tents
with all their property.
27 The heavens and the earth
will testify against them,
28 and all their possessions
will be dragged off
when God becomes angry.
29 This is what God has decided
for those who are evil.
Zophar
1-2 Job, you upset me. Now I'm impatient to answer.
3 What you have said is an insult,
but I know how to reply to you.
4 Surely you know that from ancient times,
when we humans were first placed on earth,
5 no wicked people have been happy for long.
6 They may grow great, towering to the sky,
so great that their heads reach the clouds,
7 but they will be blown away like dust.
Those who used to know them
will wonder where they have gone.
8 They will vanish like a dream, like a vision at night,
and never be seen again.
9 The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;
10 and their children will make good what they stole from the poor.
11 Their bodies used to be young and vigorous,
but soon they will turn to dust.
12-13 Evil tastes so good to them
that they keep some in their mouths to enjoy its flavor.
14 But in their stomachs the food turns bitter,
as bitter as any poison could be.
15 The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole;
God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.
16 What the evil people swallow is like poison;
it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.
17 They will not live to see rivers of olive oil
or streams that flow with milk and honey.
18 They will have to give up all they have worked for;
they will have no chance to enjoy their wealth,
19 because they oppressed and neglected the poor
and seized houses someone else had built.
20 Their greed is never satisfied.
21 When they eat, there is nothing left over,
but now their prosperity comes to an end.
22 At the height of their success
all the weight of misery will crush them.
23 Let them eat all they want!
God will punish them in fury and anger.
24 When they try to escape from an iron sword,
a bronze bow will shoot them down.
25 Arrows stick through their bodies;
the shiny points drip with their blood,
and terror grips their hearts.
26 Everything they have saved is destroyed;
a fire not lit by human hands
burns them and all their family.
27 Heaven reveals their sin,
and the earth gives testimony against them.
28 All their wealth will be destroyed
in the flood of God's anger.
29 This is the fate of wicked people,
the fate that God assigns to them.