Job 20:1-29 NET

[1] Then Zophar the Naamathite answered: [2] "This is why my troubled thoughts bring me back-because of my feelings within me. [3] When I hear a reproof that dishonors me, then my understanding prompts me to answer. [4] "Surely you know that it has been from old, ever since humankind was placed on the earth, [5] that the elation of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. [6] Even though his stature reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, [7] he will perish forever, like his own excrement; those who used to see him will say, 'Where is he?' [8] Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found, and like a vision of the night he is put to flight. [9] People who had seen him will not see him again, and the place where he was will recognize him no longer. [10] His sons must recompense the poor; his own hands must return his wealth. [11] His bones were full of his youthful vigor, but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust. [12] "If evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue, [13] if he retains it for himself and does not let it go, and holds it fast in his mouth, [14] his food is turned sour in his stomach; it becomes the venom of serpents within him. [15] The wealth that he consumed he vomits up, God will make him throw it out of his stomach. [16] He sucks the poison of serpents; the fangs of a viper kill him. [17] He will not look on the streams, the rivers that are the torrents of honey and butter. [18] He gives back the ill-gotten gain without assimilating it; he will not enjoy the wealth from his commerce. [19] For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them; he has seized a house which he did not build. [20] For he knows no satisfaction in his appetite; he does not let anything he desires escape. [21] "Nothing is left for him to devour; that is why his prosperity does not last. [22] In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress overtakes him. The full force of misery will come upon him. [23] "While he is filling his belly, God sends his burning anger against him, and rains down his blows upon him. [24] If he flees from an iron weapon, then an arrow from a bronze bow pierces him. [25] When he pulls it out and it comes out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver, terrors come over him. [26] Total darkness waits to receive his treasures; a fire that has not been kindled will consume him and devour what is left in his tent. [27] The heavens reveal his iniquity; the earth rises up against him. [28] A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God's wrath. [29] Such is the lot God allots the wicked, and the heritage of his appointment from God."