Zophar: Destruction Awaits the Wicked 1 UDB Then Zophar replied again: BSB BSB: Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 UDB "I am very troubled about what you have said, so I want to reply very quickly. BSB BSB: “So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer, because of the turmoil within me.
3 UDB By saying these things you have insulted me, but something within my understanding suggests to me how I may reply to you. BSB BSB: I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my understanding prompts a reply.
4 UDB Do you not know that from long ago, ever since God first put people on the earth, BSB BSB: Do you not know that from antiquity, since man was placed on the earth,
5 UDB that wicked people like you do not continue to rejoice for a long time, and that people who refuse to honor God are happy only for a moment? BSB BSB: the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?
6 UDB Although their reputations reach up to the sky, and their fame goes up as high as the clouds, BSB BSB: Though his arrogance reaches the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,
7 UDB they will disappear forever, like their own excrement, and those who knew them will ask, 'Where did they go?' BSB BSB: he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who had seen him will ask, ‘Where is he?’
8 UDB They will disappear as a dream does, and they will exist no more. They will vanish like dreams that people have during the 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 UDB Those people who now see those wicked people will never see them again; even the people who lived with them will not see them anymore. BSB BSB: The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer behold him.
10 UDB Their children will be forced to return the valuable things that they stole from poor people. BSB BSB: His sons will seek the favor of the poor, for his own hands must return his wealth.
11 UDB The bodies of the wicked were once young and strong, but they will die and be buried in the ground. BSB BSB: The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.
12 UDB Although doing wicked things was like having sweet food in their mouths that they wanted to continue tasting, BSB BSB: Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
13 UDB and although they did not want to stop doing those things, BSB BSB: though he cannot bear to let it go and keeps it in his mouth,
14 UDB those evil things will someday become like poison that they swallow, or like the poison from snakes. BSB BSB: yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.
15 UDB Wicked people pile up wealth for themselves, but they do not keep it forever, just like people do not keep down the food that they vomit. God takes their wealth from them. BSB BSB: He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
16 UDB Doing evil deeds is like swallowing snake poison; doing evil will kill the wicked as the bite of a poisonous snake will kill people. BSB BSB: He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
17 UDB The wicked will not remain alive to see the abundant blessings from God, which are like a stream that flows. BSB BSB: He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
18 UDB They will be forced to give back the things that they stole from the poor; they will not be able to continue to enjoy those things. They will not remain happy because of what they got from their business BSB BSB: He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.
19 UDB 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 UDB They were always greedy and never satisfied. So when they ate, they ate so much that they never saved anything that they enjoyed. BSB BSB: Because his appetite is never satisfied, he cannot escape with his treasure.
21 UDB When they finished eating their food, there was never anything left over because they had greedily eaten it all; but now their prosperity will end. BSB BSB: Nothing is left for him to consume; thus his prosperity will not endure.
22 UDB When they are still very wealthy, they will suddenly experience trouble. The full power of everyone who lives in misery will crush them. BSB BSB: In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed; the full force of misery will come upon him.
23 UDB When the wicked people are filling their stomachs, God will show that he is very angry with them, and he will punish them; he will bring down suffering on them like the rain that falls on the ground. BSB BSB: When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.
24 UDB They will try to escape from people who will attack them with iron weapons, but arrows with bronze points will pierce them. BSB BSB: Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce him.
25 UDB The arrows will go completely through their bodies and stick out of their backs; the shiny points of the arrows will have blood dripping from them, and those wicked people will be terrified. BSB BSB: It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.
26 UDB Their valuable possessions will all be destroyed; a fire started by God, not by humans, will burn them up and will destroy the things that are left in their tents. BSB BSB: Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
27 UDB The angels in heaven will reveal the sins that those wicked people have committed, and people on earth will stand up and testify against them. BSB BSB: The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 UDB On the day when God punishes people, all the possessions in the wicked people's houses will be carried away, as if a flood had come. BSB BSB: The possessions of his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s wrath.
29 UDB That is what will happen to wicked people like you; that is what God has decreed for 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.