Job 20

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Zophar of Naamath spoke next. He said:	1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered by saying:
2 My thoughts urge me to reply to this, and hence the impatience that grips me.	2 In response, various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind moves quickly through different ideas.
3 I have put up with prating that outrages me and now my mind inspires me with an answer.	3 The teaching you use to admonish me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding will respond for me.
4 Do you not know, that since time began and human beings were set on the earth,	4 This, I know, is from the beginning, from the time that man was set over the earth:
5 the triumph of the wicked has always been brief, and the sinner's gladness has never lasted long?	5 that the praise of the impious shall be short, and the joy of the hypocrite lasts only a moment.
6 Towering to the sky he may have been, his head touching the clouds;	6 If his pride ascends even towards the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
7 but he vanishes, like a phantom, once for al , while those who used to see him, ask, 'Where is he?'	7 in the end, he will be destroyed like a trash heap, and those who had seen him will say: “Where is he?”
8 Like a dream that leaves no trace he takes his flight, like a vision in the night he flies away.	8 Like a dream that flies away, he will not be found; he will pass away like a nightmare.
9 The eye accustomed to see him sees him no more, his home wil never set eyes on him again.	9 The eyes that had seen him, will not see him; no longer will his own place admire him.
10 His sons will have to reimburse the poor and his children pay back his riches.	10 His sons will be worn away by poverty, and his own hands will deliver his grief to him.
11 His bones used to be ful of youthful vigour: and there it lies, in the dust with him, now!	11 His bones will be filled with the vices of his youth, and they will sleep with him in the dust.
12 Evil was sweet to his mouth, he would shelter it under his tongue;	12 For, when evil will be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.
13 cultivating it careful y, he would let it linger on his palate.	13 He will permit it, and not abandon it, and he will conceal it in his throat.
14 Such food goes bad in his bel y, working inside him like the poison of a viper.	14 His bread in his belly will be turned into the venom of snakes within him.
15 Now he has to vomit up the wealth that he has swal owed, God makes him disgorge it.	15 The riches that he devours, he will vomit up, and from his stomach God will draw them out.
16 He used to suck vipers' venom, and the tongue of the adder kills him.	16 He will suck the head of snakes, and the tongue of the viper will kill him.
17 No more will he know the streams of oil or the torrents of honey and cream.	17 (May he never see the streams of the river, the torrents of honey and butter.)
18 When he gives back his winnings, his cheerfulness wil fade, and the satisfied air he had whenbusiness was thriving.	18 He will be repaid for all he has done, yet he will not be consumed; according to the multitude of his schemes, so also will he suffer.
19 Since he once destroyed the huts of the poor, plundering houses instead of building them up,	19 For, having broken in, he stripped the poor. He has quickly stolen away a house he did not build.
20 since his avarice could never be satisfied, now al his hoarding will not save him;	20 And yet his stomach will not be satisfied, and when he has the things he desires, he will not be able to possess them.
21 since nothing could escape his greed, his prosperity wil not last.	21 Nothing remained of his portion, and, because of this, nothing will continue of his kind.
22 When he has everything he needs, want wil seize him, and misery wil light on him with all its force.	22 When he will be satisfied, he will be constrained; he will seethe, and all anguish will fall upon him.
23 On him God looses al his burning wrath, hurling against his flesh a hail of arrows.	23 May his stomach be filled, so that God may send forth the fury of his wrath to him and may rain down his battle upon him.
24 If he escapes the weapons of iron, the bow of bronze wil transfix him.	24 He will flee from weapons of iron, and he will fall in an arc of brass,
25 Out of his back sticks an arrow, from his gal a shining point. The terrors advance on him,	25 which had been drawn and had issued forth from its sheath, glittering in its bitterness: the horrible ones will go forth and approach over him.
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.	26 All darkness has been hidden in his secrecy. A fire that has not been set will devour him; he will be thrown down and forsaken in his tabernacle.
27 The heavens lay bare his iniquity, and the earth rises up against him.	27 The heavens will reveal his sinfulness, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 The income of his house pours away, like the torrents, on the day of retribution.	28 The offspring of his house will be exposed; he will be pulled down in the day of God’s wrath.
29 Such is the fate God reserves for the wicked, the inheritance he assigns to the accursed!	29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his words from the Lord.