Job 20

KING JAMES BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,	1 Zophar of Naamath spoke next. He said:
2 Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.	2 My thoughts urge me to reply to this, and hence the impatience that grips me.
3 I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.	3 I have put up with prating that outrages me and now my mind inspires me with an answer.
4 Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,	4 Do you not know, that since time began and human beings were set on the earth,
5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?	5 the triumph of the wicked has always been brief, and the sinner's gladness has never lasted long?
6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;	6 Towering to the sky he may have been, his head touching the clouds;
7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?	7 but he vanishes, like a phantom, once for al , while those who used to see him, ask, 'Where is he?'
8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.	8 Like a dream that leaves no trace he takes his flight, like a vision in the night he flies away.
9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.	9 The eye accustomed to see him sees him no more, his home wil never set eyes on him again.
10 His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.	10 His sons will have to reimburse the poor and his children pay back his riches.
11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.	11 His bones used to be ful of youthful vigour: and there it lies, in the dust with him, now!
12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;	12 Evil was sweet to his mouth, he would shelter it under his tongue;
13 Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:	13 cultivating it careful y, he would let it linger on his palate.
14 Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.	14 Such food goes bad in his bel y, working inside him like the poison of a viper.
15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.	15 Now he has to vomit up the wealth that he has swal owed, God makes him disgorge it.
16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.	16 He used to suck vipers' venom, and the tongue of the adder kills him.
17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.	17 No more will he know the streams of oil or the torrents of honey and cream.
18 That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.	18 When he gives back his winnings, his cheerfulness wil fade, and the satisfied air he had whenbusiness was thriving.
19 Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;	19 Since he once destroyed the huts of the poor, plundering houses instead of building them up,
20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.	20 since his avarice could never be satisfied, now al his hoarding will not save him;
21 There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.	21 since nothing could escape his greed, his prosperity wil not last.
22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.	22 When he has everything he needs, want wil seize him, and misery wil light on him with all its force.
23 When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.	23 On him God looses al his burning wrath, hurling against his flesh a hail of arrows.
24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.	24 If he escapes the weapons of iron, the bow of bronze wil transfix him.
25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.	25 Out of his back sticks an arrow, from his gal a shining point. The terrors advance on him,
26 All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.	26 all the hidden darknesses are waiting to carry him off. A fire unlit by human hand devours him, andconsumes what is left in his tent.
27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.	27 The heavens lay bare his iniquity, and the earth rises up against him.
28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.	28 The income of his house pours away, like the torrents, on the day of retribution.
29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.	29 Such is the fate God reserves for the wicked, the inheritance he assigns to the accursed!