¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered, ²“Therefore my thoughts answer me, even by reason of my haste that is in me. ³I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me. ⁴Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth, ⁵that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment? ⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, ⁷yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ ⁸He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night. ⁹The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more. ¹⁰His children will seek the favor of the poor. His hands will give back his wealth. ¹¹His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust. ¹²“Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, ¹³though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth, ¹⁴yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him. ¹⁵He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly. ¹⁶He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him. ¹⁷He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter. ¹⁸He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten. ¹⁹For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up. ²⁰“Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights. ²¹There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure. ²²In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him. ²³When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating. ²⁴He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through. ²⁵He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him. ²⁶All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent. ²⁷The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him. ²⁸The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath. ²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”