1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
2 "That is why my unsettled thoughts drive me to reply, on account of the turmoil in me.
3 I hear a reproof that puts me to shame, and a spirit from my understanding gives me an answer.
4 Do you know this, from of old, since man was set upon the earth,
5 that the exulting of the wicked is short-lived, and the gladness of the godless lasts but a moment?
6 Even if his stature rises to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,
7 he will perish for ever like his own dung; those who saw him will ask, 'Where is he?'
8 Like a dream he flies off and cannot be found; he is chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye that glimpsed him will not do so again, and his place will no longer look upon him.
10 His sons will have to court the favor of the poor, and his own hands will return his wealth.
11 His bones are full of his youth, but it will lie down with him in the dust.
12 Though wickedness tastes sweet in his mouth, though he tucks it under his tongue,
13 though he spares it and will not let it go, but keeps it back in his palate,
14 his food turns sour in his bowels; it becomes the gall of cobras inside him.
15 He gulps down riches and throws them up again; God drives them out of his belly.
16 He will suck the venom of cobras; the viper's tongue will slay him.
17 He will not gaze upon the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and curds.
18 He will give back what he toiled for and not swallow it down; he will get no joy from the gains of his trade.
19 For he oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he seized a house he had not built.
20 Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not escape with anything he craved.
21 Nothing was left over from his eating; so his prosperity will not last.
22 In the fullness of his abundance he will be in straits; the whole power of the wretched will fall upon him.
23 To fill his belly, God will send against him his burning anger and rain it down on him as his food.
24 He may flee from the iron weapon, but a bow of bronze will shoot him through.
25 He draws it, and it comes out of his back; the flashing tip comes from his gall; terrors are upon him.
26 Total darkness lies in wait for his treasures; a fire no one has blown will eat him up; it will consume whatever survives in his tent.
27 The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will stand up against him.
28 The produce of his house will be carried off, washed away on the day of his wrath.
29 Such is the wicked man's portion from God, the inheritance appointed him by God."