Zophar: Destruction Awaits the Wicked 1 CPDV Then Zophar the Naamathite answered by saying: BSB BSB: Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 CPDV In response, various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind moves quickly through different ideas. BSB BSB: “So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer, because of the turmoil within me.
3 CPDV The teaching you use to admonish me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding will respond for me. BSB BSB: I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my understanding prompts a reply.
4 CPDV This, I know, is from the beginning, from the time that man was set over the earth: BSB BSB: Do you not know that from antiquity, since man was placed on the earth,
5 CPDV that the praise of the impious shall be short, and the joy of the hypocrite lasts only a moment. BSB BSB: the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?
6 CPDV If his pride ascends even towards the heavens, and his head touches the clouds, BSB BSB: Though his arrogance reaches the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
7 CPDV in the end, he will be destroyed like a trash heap, and those who had seen him will say: “Where is he?” BSB BSB: he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who had seen him will ask, ‘Where is he?’
8 CPDV Like a dream that flies away, he will not be found; he will pass away like a nightmare. 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 CPDV The eyes that had seen him, will not see him; no longer will his own place admire him. BSB BSB: The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer behold him.
10 CPDV His sons will be worn away by poverty, and his own hands will deliver his grief to him. BSB BSB: His sons will seek the favor of the poor, for his own hands must return his wealth.
11 CPDV His bones will be filled with the vices of his youth, and they will sleep with him in the dust. BSB BSB: The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.
12 CPDV For, when evil will be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue. BSB BSB: Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
13 CPDV He will permit it, and not abandon it, and he will conceal it in his throat. BSB BSB: though he cannot bear to let it go and keeps it in his mouth,
14 CPDV His bread in his belly will be turned into the venom of snakes within him. BSB BSB: yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.
15 CPDV The riches that he devours, he will vomit up, and from his stomach God will draw them out. BSB BSB: He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
16 CPDV He will suck the head of snakes, and the tongue of the viper will kill him. BSB BSB: He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
17 CPDV (May he never see the streams of the river, the torrents of honey and butter.) BSB BSB: He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
18 CPDV He will be repaid for all he has done, yet he will not be consumed; according to the multitude of his schemes, so also will he suffer. BSB BSB: He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.
19 CPDV For, having broken in, he stripped the poor. He has quickly stolen away a house he did not build. BSB BSB: For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; he has seized houses he did not build.
20 CPDV And yet his stomach will not be satisfied, and when he has the things he desires, he will not be able to possess them. BSB BSB: Because his appetite is never satisfied, he cannot escape with his treasure.
21 CPDV Nothing remained of his portion, and, because of this, nothing will continue of his kind. BSB BSB: Nothing is left for him to consume; thus his prosperity will not endure.
22 CPDV When he will be satisfied, he will be constrained; he will seethe, and all anguish will fall upon him. BSB BSB: In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed; the full force of misery will come upon him.
23 CPDV May his stomach be filled, so that God may send forth the fury of his wrath to him and may rain down his battle upon him. BSB BSB: When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.
24 CPDV He will flee from weapons of iron, and he will fall in an arc of brass, BSB BSB: Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce him.
25 CPDV which had been drawn and had issued forth from its sheath, glittering in its bitterness: the horrible ones will go forth and approach over him. BSB BSB: It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.
26 CPDV All darkness has been hidden in his secrecy. A fire that has not been set will devour him; he will be thrown down and forsaken in his tabernacle. BSB BSB: Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
27 CPDV The heavens will reveal his sinfulness, and the earth will rise up against him. BSB BSB: The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 CPDV The offspring of his house will be exposed; he will be pulled down in the day of God’s wrath. BSB BSB: The possessions of his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s wrath.
29 CPDV This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his words from the Lord. 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.