Zophar
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Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
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"My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.
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I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply.
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"Surely you know how it has been from of old,
ever since man was placed on the earth,
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that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
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Though his pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,
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he will perish forever, like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'
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Like a dream he flies away,
no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night.
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The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more.
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His children must mske amends to the poor;
his own hands must give back his wealth.
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The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.
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"Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,
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though he cannot bear to let it go and keeps it in his mouth,
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yet his food will turn sour in his stomach;
it will become the venom of serpents within him.
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He will spit out the riches he swallowed;
God will make his stomach vomit them up.
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He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him.
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He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
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What he toiled for he must give back uneaten;
he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
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For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute;
he has seized houses he did not build.
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"Surely he will have no respite from his craving;
he cannot save himself by his treasure.
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Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure.
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In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him;
the full force of misery will come upon him.
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When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him
and rain down his blows upon him.
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Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
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He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors will come over him;
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total darkness lies in wait for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
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The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him.
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A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God's wrath.
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Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God."
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that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity,
that he is delivered from the day of wrath?
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Who denounces his conduct to his face?
Who repays him for what he has done?
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He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
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The soil in the valley is sweet to him; all men follow after him,
and a countless throng goes before him.
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"So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!"
