Book - Job - Chapter = 20 --> NLT

1. Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
   
2. "I must reply because I am greatly disturbed.
   
3. I have had to endure your insults, but now my spirit prompts me to reply.
   
4. "Don't you realize that ever since people were first placed on the earth,
   
5. the triumph of the wicked has been short-lived and the joy of the godless has been only temporary?
   
6. Though the godless man's pride reaches to the heavens and though his head touches the clouds,
   
7. yet he will perish forever, thrown away like his own dung. Those who knew him will ask, `Where is he?'
   
8. He will fade like a dream and not be found. He will vanish like a vision in the night.
   
9. Neither his friends nor his family will ever see him again.
   
10. His children will beg from the poor, for he must give back his ill-gotten wealth.
    
11. He was just a young man, but his bones will lie in the dust.
    
12. "He enjoyed the taste of his wickedness, letting it melt under his tongue.
    
13. He savored it, holding it long in his mouth.
    
14. But suddenly, the food he has eaten turns sour within him, a poisonous venom in his stomach.
    
15. He will vomit the wealth he swallowed. God won't let him keep it down.
    
16. He will suck the poison of snakes. The viper will kill him.
    
17. He will never again enjoy abundant streams of olive oil or rivers of milk and honey.
    
18. His labors will not be rewarded. His wealth will bring him no joy.
    
19. For he oppressed the poor and left them destitute. He foreclosed on their homes.
    
20. He was always greedy but never satisfied. Of all the things he dreamed about, nothing remains.
    
21. Nothing is left after he finishes gorging himself; therefore, his prosperity will not endure.
    
22. "In the midst of plenty, he will run into trouble, and disasters will destroy him.
    
23. May God give him a bellyful of trouble. May God rain down his anger upon him.
    
24. He will try to escape, but God's arrow will pierce him.
    
25. The arrow is pulled from his body, and the arrowhead glistens with blood. The terrors of death are upon him.
    
26. "His treasures will be lost in deepest darkness. A wildfire will devour his goods, consuming all he has left.
    
27. The heavens will reveal his guilt, and the earth will give testimony against him.
    
28. A flood will sweep away his house. God's anger will descend on him in torrents.
    
29. This is the fate that awaits the wicked. It is the inheritance decreed by God."