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New International Version |   | |
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| | Job 20:1 | Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
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| | Job 20:2 | "My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.
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| | Job 20:3 | I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply.
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| | Job 20:4 | "Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since man was placed on the earth,
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| | Job 20:5 | that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
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| | Job 20:6 | Though his pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,
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| | Job 20:7 | he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, `Where is he?'
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| | Job 20:8 | Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night.
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| | Job 20:9 | The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more.
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| | Job 20:10 | His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth.
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| | Job 20:11 | The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.
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| | Job 20:12 | "Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,
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| | Job 20:13 | though he cannot bear to let it go and keeps it in his mouth,
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| | Job 20:14 | yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him.
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| | Job 20:15 | He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up.
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| | Job 20:16 | He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him.
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| | Job 20:17 | He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
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| | Job 20:18 | What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
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| | Job 20:19 | For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.
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| | Job 20:20 | "Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure.
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| | Job 20:21 | Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure.
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| | Job 20:22 | In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him.
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| | Job 20:23 | When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows upon him.
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| | Job 20:24 | Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
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| | Job 20:25 | He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him;
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| | Job 20:26 | total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
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| | Job 20:27 | The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him.
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| | Job 20:28 | A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God's wrath.
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| | Job 20:29 | Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God."
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