Job 20:1-9

Zophar’s Second Speech

20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:

20:2 “This is why my troubled thoughts bring me back –

because of my feelings within me.

20:3 When I hear a reproof that dishonors me,

then my understanding prompts me to answer.

20:4 “Surely you know that it has been from old,

ever since humankind was placed on the earth,

20:5 that the elation of the wicked is brief,

the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

20:6 Even though his stature reaches to the heavens

and his head touches the clouds,

20:7 he will perish forever, like his own excrement;

those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?’

20:8 Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found,

and like a vision of the night he is put to flight.

20:9 People who had seen him will not see him again,

and the place where he was

will recognize him no longer.