1 ARST Then Zophar, Job’ s friend from the town of Naamah, responded to Job. He said, BSB BSB: Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 ARST “What you have said troubles me greatly, so I want to reply to you right away. BSB BSB: “So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer, because of the turmoil within me.
3 ARST You have insulted me by what you have said. But I have had a good idea about how I should respond to you. BSB BSB: I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my understanding prompts a reply.
4 ARST People have known this for a long time, for as long as they have existed: BSB BSB: Do you not know that from antiquity, since man was placed on the earth,
5 ARST Wicked people are only briefly successful; people who refuse to honor God are happy only for a short time. BSB BSB: the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?
6 ARST They may seem for a while to be very great and very powerful, BSB BSB: Though his arrogance reaches the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
7 ARST but they will disappear forever like refuse that people throw away. People who knew them will wonder where they have gone. BSB BSB: he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who had seen him will ask, ‘Where is he?’
8 ARST They will disappear the way a dream ends abruptly when a person wakes up. They will no longer exist. Yes, they will vanish just like the dreams that people have at night. BSB BSB: He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
9 ARST Those who once saw those wicked people will never see them again. Those wicked people will no longer live where they once lived. BSB BSB: The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer behold him.
10 ARST They will have to return the valuable things that they stole from poor people. If they die before they can do that, their children will have to do it. BSB BSB: His sons will seek the favor of the poor, for his own hands must return his wealth.
11 ARST Wicked people will die before they grow old and others will bury them in the ground. BSB BSB: The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.
12 ARST For wicked people, doing wrong things is like having sweet food in their mouths that they want to continue tasting. BSB BSB: Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
13 ARST They do not want to stop doing wrong things, as if those things were delicious food that they enjoyed eating. BSB BSB: though he cannot bear to let it go and keeps it in his mouth,
14 ARST { But they will regret doing those wrong things.} They will feel like people who eat what they should not eat and get a badly upset stomach that feels as if it is full of poison. BSB BSB: yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.
15 ARST Wicked people try to get as much money as they can but they do not keep it, just as people who eat too much throw up the food that they ate. God makes sure that they lose their wealth. BSB BSB: He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
16 ARST A person who does evil deeds will die as a result, as certainly as the bite of a poisonous snake kills a person. BSB BSB: He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
17 ARST A wicked person will not experience the abundant blessings that flow like a stream from God. BSB BSB: He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
18 ARST Wicked people will have to give back the things that they acquired dishonestly. They will not be able to continue using those things. They will not have the opportunity to enjoy the things they got by doing business, BSB BSB: He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.
19 ARST because they oppressed poor people and refused to help them, and they took other people’ s houses by cheating them. BSB BSB: For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; he has seized houses he did not build.
20 ARST No matter how much they got, they still remained greedy, and as a result, they lost the things that they enjoyed having. BSB BSB: Because his appetite is never satisfied, he cannot escape with his treasure.
21 ARST When they finish eating their food, there is never anything left over, because they greedily eat it all. That is why they do not remain wealthy. BSB BSB: Nothing is left for him to consume; thus his prosperity will not endure.
22 ARST While they are still very wealthy, they will suddenly experience trouble. Many people will be hostile to them and hurt them. BSB BSB: In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed; the full force of misery will come upon him.
23 ARST Even as wicked people are enjoying luxuries, God will show that he is very angry with them. He will punish them with great suffering, even as they are indulging themselves. BSB BSB: When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.
24 ARST Even as they are trying to escape from smaller punishments, they will experience greater punishments. BSB BSB: Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce him.
25 ARST It will be as if God had shot an arrow through a wicked person’ s body and he had to pull it out of his back. But the shiny point of the arrow would have cut a gash in his liver, and he would know that he was going to die. BSB BSB: It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.
26 ARST God has decided that he will destroy the valuable possessions that wicked people have. It will be as if a fire that God starts will burn them up. Yes, God will destroy every last thing that they have in their homes. BSB BSB: Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
27 ARST The sins that those wicked people have committed will become apparent. If the sky could speak, it would tell all the wrong things it saw them do. If the earth could speak, it would also be a witness against them. BSB BSB: The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 ARST On the day when God punishes people, he will take away all the possessions of wicked people. It will be as if a flood had washed them away. BSB BSB: The possessions of his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s wrath.
29 ARST That is what God will do to wicked people. That is what God has decreed will happen to them.” BSB BSB: This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the inheritance God has appointed him.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.