Zophar: Destruction Awaits the Wicked

1Then answered Zophar the Naamathite and saide,

2Doubtles my thoughts cause me to answere, and therefore I make haste.

3I haue heard the correction of my reproch: therefore the spirite of mine vnderstanding causeth me to answere.

4Knowest thou not this of olde? and since God placed man vpon the earth,

5That the reioycing of the wicked is short, and that the ioy of hypocrites is but a moment?

6Though his excellencie mount vp to the heauen, and his head reache vnto the cloudes,

7Yet shall hee perish for euer, like his dung, and they which haue seene him, shall say, Where is hee?

8He shal flee away as a dreame, and they shal not finde him, and shall passe away as a vision of the night,

9So that the eye which had seene him, shall do so no more, & his place shal see him no more.

10His children shall flatter the poore, & his hands shall restore his substance.

11His bones are full of the sinne of his youth, and it shal lie downe with him in the dust.

12When wickednesse was sweete in his mouth, and he hid it vnder his tongue,

13And fauoured it, and would not forsake it, but kept it close in his mouth,

14Then his meat in his bowels was turned: the gall of Aspes was in the middes of him.

15He hath deuoured substance, and hee shall vomit it: for God shall drawe it out of his bellie.

16He shall sucke the gall of Aspes, and the vipers tongue shall slay him.

17He shall not see the riuers, nor the floods and streames of honie and butter.

18He shal restore the labour, and shall deuoure no more: euen according to the substance shalbe his exchange, & he shal enioy it no more.

19For he hath vndone many: he hath forsaken the poore, and hath spoyled houses which he builded not.

20Surely he shall feele no quietnes in his bodie, neither shall he reserue of that which he desired.

21There shall none of his meate bee left: therefore none shal hope for his goods.

22When he shalbe filled with his abundance, he shalbe in paine, and the hand of all the wicked shall assaile him.

23He shall be about to fill his belly, but God shall sende vpon him his fierce wrath, and shall cause to rayne vpon him, euen vpon his meate.

24He shall flee from the yron weapons, and the bow of steele shal strike him through.

25The arrowe is drawen out, and commeth forth of the body, & shineth of his gall, so feare commeth vpon him.

26All darkenes shalbe hid in his secret places: the fire that is not blowen, shall deuoure him, and that which remaineth in his tabernacle, shalbe destroyed.

27The heauen shal declare his wickednes, & the earth shal rise vp against him.

28The increase of his house shal go away: it shal flow away in the day of his wrath.

29This is the portion of the wicked man fro God, and the heritage that he shal haue of God for his wordes.