ESV - Job Chapter 20 to 21

20 Zophar Speaks: The Wicked Will Suffer

20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

²“Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me. ³I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me. ⁴Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, ⁵that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment? ⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, ⁷he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ ⁸He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night. ⁹The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him. ¹⁰His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth. ¹¹His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.

¹²“Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue, ¹³though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth, ¹⁴yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him. ¹⁵He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly. ¹⁶He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him. ¹⁷He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds. ¹⁸He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment. ¹⁹For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.

²⁰“Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him. ²¹There was nothing left after he had eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure. ²²In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him. ²³To fill his belly to the full God^[1]will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body. ²⁴He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through. ²⁵It is drawn forth and comes out of his body; the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder; terrors come upon him. ²⁶Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed. ²⁷The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him. ²⁸The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God’s[2] wrath. ²⁹This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.”

[1] Hebrew he [2] Hebrew his

21 Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper

21:1 Then Job answered and said:

²“Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort. ³Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on. ⁴As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient? ⁵Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth. ⁶When I remember I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh. ⁷Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? ⁸Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants 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 does not miscarry. ¹¹They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance. 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, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. ¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’ ¹⁶Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God[3] distributes pains in his anger? ¹⁸That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away? ¹⁹You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it. ²⁰Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty. ²¹For what do they care for their houses 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 his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure, ²⁴his pails[4] full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. ²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity. ²⁶They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.

²⁷“Behold, 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 evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath? ³¹Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done? ³²When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb. ³³The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable. ³⁴How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

[3] Hebrew he [4] The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain