1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,2Therefore my disquietings return to me, and for the sake of my hastening within me.3I hear the discipline of my shame, and a spirit from my understanding answers me.4Do you know this from perpetuity, from the time when man was set upon the land?5For the triumphing of the wicked is near, and the joy of the profane lasts only a moment.6If his loftiness ascends to heaven and his head touches the cloud,7like dung he perishes forever; those who see him say, Where is he?8He flies away like a dream and they do not find him; he is driven away like a vision of the night.9The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer be seen.10His sons must compensate the poor, and his hands must give back his wealth.11His bones were filled with his youth, and with him he lies down in the dust.12If evil is sweet in his mouth, he hides it under his tongue.13He spares it and does not let it go, and he keeps it in the midst of his mouth.14His food is turned in his stomach; the venom of cobras is within him.15He swallowed riches and vomited them from his belly; God casts them out of his belly.16He suckles the poison of cobras; the tongue of the viper kills him.17He does not see streams of rivers of honey and curd.18He returns the fruit of his toil and does not swallow it; he does not rejoice in the profit of his trade.19For he crushed and left the poor; he plundered a house and does not build it.20For he did not know ease in his belly; in his desire he does not escape.21Nothing remains as a survivor for his food; therefore his goodness is not firm.22In the filling of his sufficiency he is distressed; every hand of the labourer comes upon him.23Let it be to fill his belly; he sends the burning anger of his face into him, and he rains it upon him in his intestines.24He flees from the weapon of iron; the bow of bronze passes through him.25He draws it out, and it comes out from his back, and the lightning from his gall goes upon him as terror.26All darkness is hidden for his treasures; fire eats him, he does not breathe, and a survivor is ill in his tent.27Heaven reveals his iniquity, and the land arises against him.28The produce of his house is carried away; it is poured out on the day of his wrath.29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his word from God.