Job, 20
Sophar declares the shortness of the prosperity of the wicked: and their sudden downfall.
[1] Then Sophar the Naamathite answered, and said: •
[2] Therefore various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind is hurried away to different things. •
[3] The doctrine with which thou reprovest me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding shall answer for me.
[4] This I know from the beginning, since man was placed upon the earth, •
[5] That the praise of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.
[6] If his pride mount up even to heaven, and his head touch the clouds: •
[7] In the end he shall be destroyed like a dunghill, and they that had seen him, shall say: Where is he? •
[8] As a dream that fleeth away he shall not be found, he shall pass as a vision of the night: •
[9] The eyes that had seen him, shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more behold him. •
[10] His children shall be oppressed with want, and his hands shall render to him his sorrow. •
[11] His bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth, and they shall sleep with him in the dust. •
[12] For when evil shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue. •
[13] He will spare it, and not leave it, and will hide it in his throat. •
[14] His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within him, •
[15] The riches which he hath swallowed, he shall vomit up, and God shall draw them out of his belly.
[16] He shall suck the head of asps, and the viper's tongue shall kill him. •
[17] Let him not see the streams of the river, the brooks of honey and of butter. •
[18] He shall be punished for all that he did, and yet shall not be consumed: according to the multitude of his devices 1 so also shall he suffer. •
According to the multitude of his devices: That is, his stratagems to gratify his passions and to oppress and destroy the poor.
[19] Because he broke in and stripped the poor: he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.
[20] And yet his belly was not filled: and when he hath the things he coveted, he shall not be able to possess them. •
[21] There was nothing left of his meat, and therefore nothing shall continue of his goods: •
[22] When he shall be filled, he shall be straitened, he shall burn, and every sorrow shall fall upon him.
[23] May his belly be filled, that God may send forth the wrath of his indignation upon him, and rain down his war upon him. •
[24] He shall flee from weapons of iron, and shall fall upon a bow of brass. •
[25] The sword is drawn out, and cometh forth from its scabbard, and glittereth in his bitterness: the terrible ones shall go and come upon him. •
[26] All darkness is hid in his secret places: a fire that is not kindled shall devour him, he shall be afflicted when left in his tabernacle. •
[27] The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him. •
[28] The offspring of his house shall be exposed, he shall be pulled down in the day of God's wrath. •
[29] This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his doings from the Lord. •