Job 20

DOUAI-RHEIMS	NEW JERUSALEM
1 Then Sophar the Naamathite answered, and said:	1 Zophar of Naamath spoke next. He said:
2 Therefore various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind is hurried away to different things.	2 My thoughts urge me to reply to this, and hence the impatience that grips me.
3 The doctrine with which thou reprovest me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding shall answer for me.	3 I have put up with prating that outrages me and now my mind inspires me with an answer.
4 This I know from the beginning, since man was placed upon the earth,	4 Do you not know, that since time began and human beings were set on the earth,
5 that the praise 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 If his pride mount up even to heaven, and his head touch the clouds:	6 Towering to the sky he may have been, his head touching the clouds;
7 In the end he shall be destroyed like a dunghill, and they that has 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 As a dream that fleeth away he shall not be found, he shall pass 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 eyes that had seen 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 be oppressed with want, and his hands shall render him his sorrow.	10 His sons will have to reimburse the poor and his children pay back his riches.
11 His bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth, and they shall sleep 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 For when evil shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.	12 Evil was sweet to his mouth, he would shelter it under his tongue;
13 He will spare it, and not leave it, and will hide it in his throat.	13 cultivating it careful y, he would let it linger on his palate.
14 His bread in his belly shall be turned into 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 The riches which he hath swallowed; he shall vomit up, and God shall draw 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 head of asps, and the viper's tongue shall kill him.	16 He used to suck vipers' venom, and the tongue of the adder kills him.
17 (Let him not see the streams of the river, the brooks of honey and of butter.)	17 No more will he know the streams of oil or the torrents of honey and cream.
18 He shall be punished for all that he did, and yet shall not be consumed: according to the multitude of his devices so also shall he suffer.	18 When he gives back his winnings, his cheerfulness wil fade, and the satisfied air he had whenbusiness was thriving.
19 Because he broke in and stripped the poor: he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.	19 Since he once destroyed the huts of the poor, plundering houses instead of building them up,
20 And yet his belly was not filled: and when he hath the things he coveted, he shall not be able to possess them.	20 since his avarice could never be satisfied, now al his hoarding will not save him;
21 There was nothing left of his meat, and therefore nothing shall continue of his goods:	21 since nothing could escape his greed, his prosperity wil not last.
22 When he shall be filled, he shall be straitened, he shall burn, and every sorrow shall fall upon him.	22 When he has everything he needs, want wil seize him, and misery wil light on him with all its force.
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.	23 On him God looses al his burning wrath, hurling against his flesh a hail of arrows.
24 He shall flee from weapons of iron, and shall fall upon a bow of brass.	24 If he escapes the weapons of iron, the bow of bronze wil transfix him.
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.	25 Out of his back sticks an arrow, from his gal a shining point. The terrors advance on 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.	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 heavens 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 offspring of his house shall be exposed, he shall be pulled down in the day of God's 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 inheritance of his doings from the Lord.	29 Such is the fate God reserves for the wicked, the inheritance he assigns to the accursed!