¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,

²“This is why my thoughts prompt me to answer,

And why I am hasty in doing so:

³I hear correction of my supposedly shameful stance,

And my discerning spirit gives me an answer.

⁴Do you not know this,

Known of olden time,

Since man was placed on the earth,

⁵That the rejoicing of the wicked is of short duration,

And the happiness of the profane is but for a moment?

⁶Even if his exaltation goes up to heaven,

And his head reaches to the clouds,

⁷He will perish in perpetuity like his dung.

Those who have seen him will say,

‘Where is he?’

⁸He will fly away like a dream

And will not be found,

And he will be driven away like a nightly vision.

⁹An eye may have seen him,

But it will do so no more,

And his home place will no longer welcome him.

¹⁰His sons will satisfy the poor,

And his own hands will repay his wealth.

¹¹While his bones are still full of youthful vigour,

Each will lie down in the dust with him.

¹²Although wickedness is sweet in the mouth,

And he keeps it hidden under his tongue,

¹³Keeping it and not letting it go,

And retaining it in his mouth,

¹⁴His food will change in his bowels;

There will be adders' venom in his innards.

¹⁵He has swallowed down riches

And will vomit them up again;

God will drive them out of his stomach.

¹⁶He will suck adders' poison;

The tongue of the viper will kill him.

¹⁷May he not see streams

– The rivers and brooks of honey and butter.

¹⁸He will repay what is owed for his toil

And will not swallow it up.

According to his wealth, his debt of restitution will be,

And he will not rejoice in it,

¹⁹Because he crushed and abandoned the poor;

He seized a house

Which he did not build,

²⁰And because he was never content inwardly,

Nor did he ever let a desirable object escape him.

²¹There is nothing that escapes his voracity,

Which is why his well-being will not last.

²²In satisfying his greed,

He enters into straits.

Every distressing force shall come upon him.

²³When he is about to fill his belly,

God will send his furious anger on him,

And he will rain it on him during his meal.

²⁴He may flee from iron weaponry,

But the copper bow will pierce him through.

²⁵And if one extract the arrow,

And it comes out of his back,

Or the blade comes out from his entrails,

Then terrors still await him.

²⁶All darkness is reserved for his hidden treasures;

A fire not blown with bellows will devour him.

Any survivor in his tent will fare badly.

²⁷The heavens will reveal his iniquity,

And the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The produce of his household will be taken away,

And various things will be poured out

On the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is the fate of the wicked man from God,

And his appointed inheritance from God.”