Job 20 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Zophar Speaks: The Wicked Will Suffer

Job 20:1

Job 20:1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

Job 20:2

Job 20:2“Therefore my thoughts answer me,
because of my haste within me.

Job 20:3

Job 20:3I hear censure that insults me,
and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

Job 20:4

Job 20:4Do you not know this from of old,
since man was placed on earth,

Job 20:5

Job 20:5that the exulting of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

Job 20:6

Job 20:6Though his height mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach to the clouds,

Job 20:7

Job 20:7he will perish forever like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

Job 20:8

Job 20:8He will fly away like a dream and not be found;
he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

Job 20:9

Job 20:9The eye that saw him will see him no more,
nor will his place any more behold him.

Job 20:10

Job 20:10His children will seek the favor of the poor,
and his hands will give back his wealth.

Job 20:11

Job 20:11His bones are full of his youthful vigor,
but it will lie down with him in the dust.

Job 20:12

Job 20:12“Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
though he hides it under his tongue,

Job 20:13

Job 20:13though he is loath to let it go
and holds it in his mouth,

Job 20:14

Job 20:14yet his food is turned in his stomach;
it is the venom of cobras within him.

Job 20:15

Job 20:15He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;
God casts them out of his belly.

Job 20:16

Job 20:16He will suck the poison of cobras;
the tongue of a viper will kill him.

Job 20:17

Job 20:17He will not look upon the rivers,
the streams flowing with honey and curds.

Job 20:18

Job 20:18He will give back the fruit of his toil
and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of his trading
he will get no enjoyment.

Job 20:19

Job 20:19For he has crushed and abandoned the poor;
he has seized a house that he did not build.

Job 20:20

Job 20:20“Because he knew no contentment in his belly,
he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

Job 20:21

Job 20:21There was nothing left after he had eaten;
therefore his prosperity will not endure.

Job 20:22

Job 20:22In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;
the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

Job 20:23

Job 20:23To fill his belly to the full,
God[fn] will send his burning anger against him
and rain it upon him into his body.

Job 20:24

Job 20:24He will flee from an iron weapon;
a bronze arrow will strike him through.

Job 20:25

Job 20:25It is drawn forth and comes out of his body;
the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder;
terrors come upon him.

Job 20:26

Job 20:26Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures;
a fire not fanned will devour him;
what is left in his tent will be consumed.

Job 20:27

Job 20:27The heavens will reveal his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him.

Job 20:28

Job 20:28The possessions of his house will be carried away,
dragged off in the day of God’s[fn] wrath.

Job 20:29

Job 20:29This is the wicked man’s portion from God,
the heritage decreed for him by God.”

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(20:23)

Hebrew he

(20:28)

Hebrew his

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