Job 20 :: New International Version (NIV)

Zophar

Job 20:1

Job 20:1Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

Job 20:2

Job 20:2“My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.

Job 20:3

Job 20:3I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply.

Job 20:4

Job 20:4“Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since mankind[fn] was placed on the earth,

Job 20:5

Job 20:5that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

Job 20:6

Job 20:6Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches 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 20:8Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night.

Job 20:9

Job 20:9The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more.

Job 20:10

Job 20:10His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth.

Job 20:11

Job 20:11The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.

Job 20:12

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

Job 20:13

Job 20:13though he cannot bear to let it go and lets it linger in his mouth,

Job 20:14

Job 20:14yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him.

Job 20:15

Job 20:15He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up.

Job 20:16

Job 20:16He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him.

Job 20:17

Job 20:17He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

Job 20:18

Job 20:18What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.

Job 20:19

Job 20:19For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.

Job 20:20

Job 20:20“Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure.

Job 20:21

Job 20:21Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure.

Job 20:22

Job 20:22In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him.

Job 20:23

Job 20:23When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows on him.

Job 20:24

Job 20:24Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.

Job 20:25

Job 20:25He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him;

Job 20:26

Job 20:26total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.

Job 20:27

Job 20:27The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him.

Job 20:28

Job 20:28A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters[fn] on the day of God’s wrath.

Job 20:29

Job 20:29Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.”

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

NIV Footnotes

(20:4)

Or Adam

(20:28)

Or The possessions in his house will be carried off, / washed away

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