20Job 20

Zophar

2Job, you upset me. Now I'm impatient to answer.Select Job 20:2

3What you have said is an insult, but I know how to reply to you.Select Job 20:3

4Surely you know that from ancient times, when we humans were first placed on earth,Select Job 20:4

5no wicked people have been happy for long.Select Job 20:5

6They may grow great, towering to the sky, so great that their heads reach the clouds,Select Job 20:6

7but they will be blown away like dust. Those who used to know them will wonder where they have gone.Select Job 20:7

8They will vanish like a dream, like a vision at night, and never be seen again.Select Job 20:8

9The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;Select Job 20:9

10and their children will make good what they stole from the poor.Select Job 20:10

11Their bodies used to be young and vigorous, but soon they will turn to dust.Select Job 20:11

13Evil tastes so good to them that they keep some in their mouths to enjoy its flavor.Select Job 20:13

14But in their stomachs the food turns bitter, as bitter as any poison could be.Select Job 20:14

15The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole; God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.Select Job 20:15

16What the evil people swallow is like poison; it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.Select Job 20:16

17They will not live to see rivers of olive oil or streams that flow with milk and honey.Select Job 20:17

18They will have to give up all they have worked for; they will have no chance to enjoy their wealth,Select Job 20:18

19because they oppressed and neglected the poor and seized houses someone else had built.Select Job 20:19

20Their greed is never satisfied.Select Job 20:20

21When they eat, there is nothing left over, but now their prosperity comes to an end.Select Job 20:21

22At the height of their success all the weight of misery will crush them.Select Job 20:22

23Let them eat all they want! God will punish them in fury and anger.Select Job 20:23

24When they try to escape from an iron sword, a bronze bow will shoot them down.Select Job 20:24

25Arrows stick through their bodies; the shiny points drip with their blood, and terror grips their hearts.Select Job 20:25

26Everything they have saved is destroyed; a fire not lit by human hands burns them and all their family.Select Job 20:26

27Heaven reveals their sin, and the earth gives testimony against them.Select Job 20:27

28All their wealth will be destroyed in the flood of God's anger.Select Job 20:28

29This is the fate of wicked people, the fate that God assigns to them.Select Job 20:29