Job 20 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Zophar’s Second Response to Job

Job 20:1

Job 20:1Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

Job 20:2

Job 20:2“I must reply
because I am greatly disturbed.

Job 20:3

Job 20:3I’ve had to endure your insults,
but now my spirit prompts me to reply.

Job 20:4

Job 20:4“Don’t you realize that from the beginning of time,
ever since people were first placed on the earth,

Job 20:5

Job 20:5the triumph of the wicked has been short lived
and the joy of the godless has been only temporary?

Job 20:6

Job 20:6Though the pride of the godless reaches to the heavens
and their heads touch the clouds,

Job 20:7

Job 20:7yet they will vanish forever,
thrown away like their own dung.
Those who knew them will ask,
‘Where are they?’

Job 20:8

Job 20:8They will fade like a dream and not be found.
They will vanish like a vision in the night.

Job 20:9

Job 20:9Those who once saw them will see them no more.
Their families will never see them again.

Job 20:10

Job 20:10Their children will beg from the poor,
for they must give back their stolen riches.

Job 20:11

Job 20:11Though they are young,
their bones will lie in the dust.

Job 20:12

Job 20:12“They enjoyed the sweet taste of wickedness,
letting it melt under their tongue.

Job 20:13

Job 20:13They savored it,
holding it long in their mouths.

Job 20:14

Job 20:14But suddenly the food in their bellies turns sour,
a poisonous venom in their stomach.

Job 20:15

Job 20:15They will vomit the wealth they swallowed.
God won’t let them keep it down.

Job 20:16

Job 20:16They will suck the poison of cobras.
The viper will kill them.

Job 20:17

Job 20:17They will never again enjoy streams of olive oil
or rivers of milk and honey.

Job 20:18

Job 20:18They will give back everything they worked for.
Their wealth will bring them no joy.

Job 20:19

Job 20:19For they oppressed the poor and left them destitute.
They foreclosed on their homes.

Job 20:20

Job 20:20They were always greedy and never satisfied.
Nothing remains of all the things they dreamed about.

Job 20:21

Job 20:21Nothing is left after they finish gorging themselves.
Therefore, their prosperity will not endure.

Job 20:22

Job 20:22“In the midst of plenty, they will run into trouble
and be overcome by misery.

Job 20:23

Job 20:23May God give them a bellyful of trouble.
May God rain down his anger upon them.

Job 20:24

Job 20:24When they try to escape an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce them.

Job 20:25

Job 20:25The arrow is pulled from their back,
and the arrowhead glistens with blood.[fn]
The terrors of death are upon them.

Job 20:26

Job 20:26Their treasures will be thrown into deepest darkness.
A wildfire will devour their goods,
consuming all they have left.

Job 20:27

Job 20:27The heavens will reveal their guilt,
and the earth will testify against them.

Job 20:28

Job 20:28A flood will sweep away their house.
God’s anger will descend on them in torrents.

Job 20:29

Job 20:29This is the reward that God gives the wicked.
It is the inheritance decreed by God.”

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

NLT Footnotes

(20:25)

Hebrew with gall.

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