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1 THEN answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, | |
2 Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste. | |
3 I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer. | |
4 Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, | |
5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? | |
6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds; | |
7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he? | |
8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. | |
9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him. | |
10 His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods. | |
11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust. | |
12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; | |
13 Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: | |
14 Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. | |
15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. | |
16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him. | |
17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. | |
18 That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein. | |
19 Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not; | |
20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired. | |
21 There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods. | |
22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. | |
23 When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating. | |
24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. | |
25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him. | |
26 All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle. | |
27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. | |
28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath. | |
29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God. | |
