¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

²Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me answer, and on account of this I hasten within me.

³I hear the correction that disgraces me, and a breath from my understanding answers me.

⁴Do you know this, from of old, since man was set on the land,

⁵that the joyful cry of the wicked is recent, and the gladness of the godless lasts only a moment?

⁶Though his loftiness goes up to the skies and his head reaches the cloud,

⁷like his own dung he will perish forever; those who saw him will say, 'Where is he?'.

⁸Like a dream he will fly away, and they will not find him; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹An eye caught sight of him and will not do it again, and his place will no more behold him.

¹⁰His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his own hands will give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones were full of his youthful vigor, yet with him it will lie down on the dust.

¹²Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,

¹³though he spares it and will not forsake it, but withholds it in the middle of his palate,

¹⁴His food is turned in his bowels, the poison of cobras within him.

¹⁵The wealth he swallowed down he vomits up; God will drive it out of his belly.

¹⁶The poison of cobras he will suck; the tongue of a viper will slay him.

¹⁷May he not see the streams, the rivers, the torrents of honey and curds.

¹⁸He gives back his gain and does not swallow it down; in keeping with the wealth of his exchange, he will not rejoice.

¹⁹For he crushed and forsook the poor; he seized a house he did not build.

²⁰For he knew no ease in his belly; he cannot save any of his desired things.

²¹Nothing survives his devouring; therefore his good will not wait.

²²When he is full of his satiety, he will be in straits; the hand of every sufferer will come upon him.

²³It will be that, to fill his belly, he sends against him the burning of his anger, and rains it down upon him as his food.

²⁴He will flee from the iron weapon; a bronze bow will pierce him.

²⁵He draws it out and it comes out of his back, the flashing arrowhead from his gall; dreads go over him.

²⁶All darkness is hidden away for his treasures; an unfanned fire will consume him; it will go ill with the survivor in his tent.

²⁷The skies will uncover his guilt, and the land will rise up against him.

²⁸The produce of his house will depart, spilled in the day of his anger.

²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his word from God.