Job 20–21

Chapter 20

Zophar’s Second Response to Job

Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

²“I must reply

because I am greatly disturbed.

³I’ve had to endure your insults,

but now my spirit prompts me to reply.

⁴“Don’t you realize that from the beginning of time,

ever since people were first placed on the earth,

⁵the triumph of the wicked has been short lived

and the joy of the godless has been only temporary?

⁶Though the pride of the godless reaches to the heavens

and their heads touch the clouds,

⁷yet they will vanish forever,

thrown away like their own dung.

Those who knew them will ask,

‘Where are they?’

⁸They will fade like a dream and not be found.

They will vanish like a vision in the night.

⁹Those who once saw them will see them no more.

Their families will never see them again.

¹⁰Their children will beg from the poor,

for they must give back their stolen riches.

¹¹Though they are young,

their bones will lie in the dust.

¹²“They enjoyed the sweet taste of wickedness,

letting it melt under their tongue.

¹³They savored it,

holding it long in their mouths.

¹⁴But suddenly the food in their bellies turns sour,

a poisonous venom in their stomach.

¹⁵They will vomit the wealth they swallowed.

God won’t let them keep it down.

¹⁶They will suck the poison of cobras.

The viper will kill them.

¹⁷They will never again enjoy streams of olive oil

or rivers of milk and honey.

¹⁸They will give back everything they worked for.

Their wealth will bring them no joy.

¹⁹For they oppressed the poor and left them destitute.

They foreclosed on their homes.

²⁰They were always greedy and never satisfied.

Nothing remains of all the things they dreamed about.

²¹Nothing is left after they finish gorging themselves.

Therefore, their prosperity will not endure.

²²“In the midst of plenty, they will run into trouble

and be overcome by misery.

²³May God give them a bellyful of trouble.

May God rain down his anger upon them.

²⁴When they try to escape an iron weapon,

a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce them.

²⁵The arrow is pulled from their back,

and the arrowhead glistens with blood.

The terrors of death are upon them.

²⁶Their treasures will be thrown into deepest darkness.

A wildfire will devour their goods,

consuming all they have left.

²⁷The heavens will reveal their guilt,

and the earth will testify against them.

²⁸A flood will sweep away their house.

God’s anger will descend on them in torrents.

²⁹This is the reward that God gives the wicked.

It is the inheritance decreed by God.”

Chapter 21

Job’s Seventh Speech: A Response to Zophar

Then Job spoke again:

²“Listen closely to what I am saying.

That’s one consolation you can give me.

³Bear with me, and let me speak.

After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me.

⁴“My complaint is with God, not with people.

I have good reason to be so impatient.

⁵Look at me and be stunned.

Put your hand over your mouth in shock.

⁶When I think about what I am saying, I shudder.

My body trembles.

⁷“Why do the wicked prosper,

growing old and powerful?

⁸They live to see their children grow up and settle down,

and they enjoy their grandchildren.

⁹Their homes are safe from every fear,

and God does not punish them.

¹⁰Their bulls never fail to breed.

Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.

¹¹They let their children frisk about like lambs.

Their little ones skip and dance.

¹²They sing with tambourine and harp.

They celebrate to the sound of the flute.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity,

then go down to the grave in peace.

¹⁴And yet they say to God, ‘Go away.

We want no part of you and your ways.

¹⁵Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him?

What good will it do us to pray?’

¹⁶(They think their prosperity is of their own doing,

but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)

¹⁷“Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished.

Do they ever have trouble?

Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?

¹⁸Are they driven before the wind like straw?

Are they carried away by the storm like chaff?

Not at all!

¹⁹“ ‘Well,’ you say, ‘at least God will punish their children!’

But I say he should punish the ones who sin,

so that they understand his judgment.

²⁰Let them see their destruction with their own eyes.

Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty.

²¹For they will not care what happens to their family

after they are dead.

²²“But who can teach a lesson to God,

since he judges even the most powerful?

²³One person dies in prosperity,

completely comfortable and secure,

²⁴the picture of good health,

vigorous and fit.

²⁵Another person dies in bitter poverty,

never having tasted the good life.

²⁶But both are buried in the same dust,

both eaten by the same maggots.

²⁷“Look, I know what you’re thinking.

I know the schemes you plot against me.

²⁸You will tell me of rich and wicked people

whose houses have vanished because of their sins.

²⁹But ask those who have been around,

and they will tell you the truth.

³⁰Evil people are spared in times of calamity

and are allowed to escape disaster.

³¹No one criticizes them openly

or pays them back for what they have done.

³²When they are carried to the grave,

an honor guard keeps watch at their tomb.

³³A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery.

Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest,

and the earth gives sweet repose.

³⁴“How can your empty clichés comfort me?

All your explanations are lies!”