Zophar: Destruction Awaits the Wicked

Zophar says his troubled thoughts and the rebuke he has heard compel him to answer. He appeals to what has supposedly been obvious since human beings were first placed on earth: the triumph of the wicked is brief and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment.

T¹hen Zophar the Naamathite replied: ²“So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer, ³I have heard a rebuke that insults me, ⁴Do you not know that from antiquity, ⁵the triumph of the wicked has been brief

Even if the wicked person's stature rises to the heavens, Zophar says, he vanishes like refuse, like a dream or vision that cannot be found. His place forgets him, his children must appease the poor, and the vigor once filling his bones sinks with him into the dust.

⁶Though his arrogance reaches the heavens, ⁷he will perish forever, like his own dung; ⁸He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; ⁹The eye that saw him will see him no more, ¹⁰His sons will seek the favor of the poor, ¹¹The youthful vigor that fills his bones

Zophar says evil may taste sweet for a time, hidden under the tongue, but it turns inside the wicked into cobra's poison. Wealth swallowed down is vomited out again, sweetness is denied him, and he must give back what he labored for because he oppressed the poor and seized houses he did not build.

¹²Though evil is sweet in his mouth ¹³though he cannot bear to let it go ¹⁴yet in his stomach his food sours ¹⁵He swallows wealth but vomits it out; ¹⁶He will suck the poison of cobras; ¹⁷He will not enjoy the streams, ¹⁸He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; ¹⁹For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor;

Because the wicked person never knows contentment, nothing he cherishes finally escapes ruin. In the middle of plenty distress falls on him, God's burning anger becomes his food, weapons find him, darkness consumes his treasures, heaven and earth rise against him, and the increase of his house is swept away, because this, Zophar says, is the portion God appoints to the wicked.

²⁰Because his appetite is never satisfied, ²¹Nothing is left for him to consume; ²²In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed; ²³When he has filled his stomach, ²⁴Though he flees from an iron weapon, ²⁵It is drawn out of his back, ²⁶Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. ²⁷The heavens will expose his iniquity, ²⁸The possessions of his house will be removed, ²⁹This is the wicked man’s portion from God,