1 ZOPHAR THE NAAMATHITE SPEAKS:
2 »My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer for I am greatly disturbed.
3 »I hear a rebuke that dishonors me. Therefore my understanding inspires me to reply.
4 »Do you not know from of old, ever since man was placed on the earth?
5 »The success of the wicked is brief and the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
6 »Though his pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,
7 he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say: Where is he?
8 »He flies away like a dream banished like a vision of the night. He cannot be found!
9 »The eye that saw him will not see him again. His place home will look on him no more.
10 »His children must make amends to the poor. He must give back his wealth.
11 »The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.
12 »Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,
13 though he cannot bear to let it go and keeps it in his mouth,
14 yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him.
15 »He will spit out the riches he swallowed. God will make his stomach vomit them up.
16 »He will suck the poison of serpents. The fangs of an adder cobra will kill him.
17 »He will not look upon the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
18 »What he toiled for he must give back uneaten. He will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
19 »For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor and left them destitute. He has violently seized houses he did not build.
20 »He will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure.
21 »There is nothing left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure.
22 »Distress will overtake him in the midst of his plenty. The full force of misery will come upon him.
23 »With his belly full, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows upon him.
24 »Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
25 »He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him.
26 »Total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
27 »The heavens will expose his guilt. The earth will rise up against him!
28 »A flood will carry off his house. Rushing waters will wash away his possessions on the day of Gods wrath.
29 »This is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.«