Job 20–21

Zophar Speaks: Wickedness Receives Just Retribution

²⁰Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:

²“Listen! My thoughts urge me to answer

because of the agitation within me.

³I hear censure that insults me,

and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.^*

⁴Do you not know this from of old,

ever since mortals were placed on earth,^*

⁵that the exulting of the wicked is short

and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?^*

⁶Even though they mount up high as the heavens

and their head reaches to the clouds,^*

⁷they will perish forever like their own dung;

those who have seen them will say, ‘Where are they?’

⁸They will fly away like a dream and not be found;

they will be chased away like a vision of the night.^*

⁹The eye that saw them will see them no more,

nor will their place behold them any longer.^*

¹⁰Their children will seek the favor of the poor,

and their hands will give back their wealth.^*

¹¹Their bodies, once full of youth,

will lie down in the dust with them.^*

¹²“Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth,

though they hide it under their tongues,^*

¹³though they are loath to let it go

and hold it in their mouths,

¹⁴yet their food is turned in their stomachs;

it is the venom of asps within them.

¹⁵They swallow down riches and vomit them up again;

God casts them out of their bellies.

¹⁶They will suck the poison of asps;

the tongue of a viper will kill them.^*

¹⁷They will not look on the rivers,

the streams flowing with honey and curds.^*

¹⁸They will give back the fruit of their toil

and will not swallow it down;

from the profit of their trading

they will get no enjoyment.^*

¹⁹For they have crushed and abandoned the poor;

they have seized a house that they did not build.^*

²⁰“For they knew no quiet in their bellies;

in their greed they let nothing escape.^*

²¹There was nothing left after they had eaten;

therefore their prosperity will not endure.^*

²²In full sufficiency they will be in distress;

all the force of misery will come upon them.

²³To fill their belly to the full,

God^c will send his fierce anger into them

and rain it upon them as their food.^*

²⁴They will flee from an iron weapon;

a bronze arrow will strike them through.^*

²⁵It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,

and the glittering point comes out of their gall;

terrors come upon them.^*

²⁶Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;

a fire fanned by no one will devour them;

what is left in their tent will be consumed.^*

²⁷The heavens will reveal their iniquity,

and the earth will rise up against them.^*

²⁸The possessions of their house will be carried away,

dragged off in the day of God’s^d wrath.^*

²⁹This is the portion of the wicked from God,

the heritage decreed for them by God.”^*

Job Replies: The Wicked Often Go Unpunished

²¹Then Job answered:

²“Listen carefully to my words,

and let this be your consolation.

³Bear with me, and I will speak;

then after I have spoken, mock on.^*

⁴As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals?

Why should I not be impatient?^*

⁵Look at me and be appalled,

and lay your hand upon your mouth.^*

⁶When I think of it I am dismayed,

and shuddering seizes my flesh.

⁷Why do the wicked live on,

reach old age, and grow mighty in power?^*

⁸Their children are established in their presence

and their offspring before their eyes.^*

⁹Their houses are safe from fear,

and no rod of God is upon them.^*

¹⁰Their bull breeds without fail;

their cow calves and never miscarries.^*

¹¹They send out their little ones like a flock,

and their children dance around.

¹²They sing to the tambourine and the lyre

and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.^*

¹³They spend their days in prosperity,

and in peace they go down to Sheol.^*

¹⁴They say to God, ‘Leave us alone!

We do not desire to know your ways.^*

¹⁵What is the Almighty,^e that we should serve him?

And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’^*

¹⁶Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement?^f

The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.^*

¹⁷“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?

How often does calamity come upon them?

How often does God^g distribute pains in his anger?^*

¹⁸How often are they like straw before the wind

and like chaff that the storm carries away?^*

¹⁹You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’

Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it.^*

²⁰Let their own eyes see their destruction,

and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.^h*

²¹For what do they care for their household after them,

when the number of their months is cut off?

²²Will any teach God knowledge,

seeing that he judges those who are on high?^*

²³One dies in full prosperity,

being wholly at ease and secure,

²⁴his loins full of milk

and the marrow of his bones moist.

²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul,

never having tasted of good.

²⁶They lie down alike in the dust,

and the worms cover them.^*

²⁷“Oh, I know your thoughts

and your schemes to wrong me.

²⁸For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?

Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’^*

²⁹Have you not asked those who travel the roads,

and do you not accept their testimony,

³⁰that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity

and are rescued in the day of wrath?^*

³¹Who declares their way to their face,

and who repays them for what they have done?

³²When they are carried to the grave,

a watch is kept over their tomb.

³³The clods of the valley are sweet to them;

everyone will follow after,

and those who went before are innumerable.^*

³⁴How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?

There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”