Zophar: Destruction Awaits the Wicked
1Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2“So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer,because of the turmoil within me.3I have heard a rebuke that insults me,and my understanding prompts a reply.4Do you not know that from antiquity,since man was placed on the earth,5the triumph of the wicked has been briefand the joy of the godless momentary?6Though his arrogance reaches the heavens,and his head touches the clouds,7he will perish forever, like his own dung;those who had seen him will ask, ‘Where is he?’8He will fly away like a dream, never to be found;he will be chased away like a vision in the night.9The eye that saw him will see him no more,and his place will no longer behold him.10His sons will seek the favor of the poor,for his own hands must return his wealth.11The youthful vigor that fills his boneswill lie down with him in the dust.12Though evil is sweet in his mouthand he conceals it under his tongue,13though he cannot bear to let it goand keeps it in his mouth,