King James Version KJV
Good News Translation GNT
1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
1
Job, you upset me.
2 Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.
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Now I'm impatient to answer.
3 I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
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What you have said is an insult, but I know how to reply to you.
4 Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,
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Surely you know that from ancient times, when we humans were first placed on earth,
5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
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no wicked people have been happy for long.
6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;
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They may grow great, towering to the sky, so great that their heads reach the clouds,
7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
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but they will be blown away like dust. Those who used to know them will wonder where they have gone.
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.
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They will vanish like a dream, like a vision at night, and never be seen again.
9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
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The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;
10 His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.
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and their children will make good what they stole from the poor.
11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
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Their bodies used to be young and vigorous, but soon they will turn to dust.
12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
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Evil tastes so good to them that they keep some in their mouths to enjoy its flavor.
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.
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But in their stomachs the food turns bitter, as bitter as any poison could be.
15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
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The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole; God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.
16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
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What the evil people swallow is like poison; it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.
17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
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They will not live to see rivers of olive oil or streams that flow with milk and honey.
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.
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They will have to give up all they have worked for; they will have no chance to enjoy their wealth,
19 Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
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because they oppressed and neglected the poor and seized houses someone else had built.
20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
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Their greed is never satisfied.
21 There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.
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When they eat, there is nothing left over, but now their prosperity comes to an end.
22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
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At the height of their success all the weight of misery will crush them.
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.
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Let them eat all they want! God will punish them in fury and anger.
24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
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When they try to escape from an iron sword, a bronze bow will shoot them down.
25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.
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Arrows stick through their bodies; the shiny points drip with their blood, and terror grips their hearts.
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.
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Everything they have saved is destroyed; a fire not lit by human hands burns them and all their family.
27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
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Heaven reveals their sin, and the earth gives testimony against them.
28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
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All their wealth will be destroyed in the flood of God's anger.
29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.
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This is the fate of wicked people, the fate that God assigns to them.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.