| Chapter 20 |
1 | Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
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2 | Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.
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3 | I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
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4 | Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,
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5 | That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
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6 | Though his excellence shall mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds;
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7 | Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they who have seen him shall say, Where is he?
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8 | He shall fly away as a dream, and will not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
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9 | The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
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10 | His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.
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11 | His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
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12 | Though wickedness may be sweet in his mouth, though he may hide it under his tongue;
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13 | Though he may spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:
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14 | Yet his food in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
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15 | He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
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16 | He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
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17 | He shall not see the river, the floods, the brooks of honey and buttermilk.
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18 | That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice in it.
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19 | Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.
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20 | Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
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21 | There shall none of his food be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.
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22 | In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
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23 | When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
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24 | He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
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25 | It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yes, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.
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26 | All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.
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27 | The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
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28 | The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
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29 | This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God.
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