Round Two: Zophar's Speech:
Job, you insult me
201Then Zophar the Na'amathite responded:
2This is why my troubled thoughts make me respond again,
and why my thoughts are racing through my mind:
3I heard a rebuke that insults me,
so my spirit prompts me to respond with understanding.
4Don't you know this?
From ancient times,
from the time when Adam[] was placed on the earth, 5the triumphant cry of the wicked has been short-lived,
and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment.
6Although his arrogance reaches up to the skies,
and his head touches the clouds,
7he will perish forever like his own filth.
Those who saw him will say, “Where is he?”
8Like a dream, he flies away, and he cannot be found.
Like a vision during the night, he flutters away.
9An eye catches sight of him, but it does not see him again.
His place will no longer look at him.
10His children must make restitution[] to the poor. His hands must give back his wealth.
11His bones were once filled with youthful vigor,
but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.
12If evil tastes sweet in his mouth,
and he tucks it under his tongue,
13if he hoards it for himself,
and he does not let it go,
but savors it on his palate,
14his food will turn into cobra venom in his stomach.
15He swallowed wealth, but he vomits it up.
God makes him expel it from his belly.
16He sucks the poison of cobras.
The fangs of a viper kill him.
17He will not see the streams,
the rivers that flow with honey and cream.
18Without digesting it, he gives up the produce for which he labored.
He does not enjoy the wealth for which he traded,
19because he has crushed and abandoned the poor,
and he has stolen a house he did not build.
20His stomach is never filled.
He cannot satisfy his desires,
21because now there is nothing left for him to eat,
so his prosperity will not endure.
22Even when he has plenty,
distress catches up with him,
and misery grabs hold of him.
23While he is filling his belly,
God will send burning anger upon him,
and it will rain down on his body.[] 