English / ERV
Job 20
Easy-to-Read Version, 2006
- 1Then Zophar from Naamah answered:
- 2“You upset me, so I must answer you. I must tell you what I am thinking.
- 3You insulted me with your answers! But I am wise and know how to answer you.
- 4[4-5] “You know that the joy of the wicked does not last long. That has been true a long time, ever since Adam was[1] put on earth. Those who don’t know God are happy for only a short time.
- 6Maybe an evil man’s pride will reach up to the sky, and his head will touch the clouds.
- 7But he will be gone forever like his own body waste. People who knew him will say, ‘Where is he?’
- 8Like a dream, he will fly away, never to be found. He will be chased away like a bad dream.[2]
- 9Those who knew him before will not see him again. His family will never again get to see him.
- 10His children will have to give back what he took from the poor. His own hands will give up his wealth.
- 11When he was young, his bones were strong, but, like the rest of his body, they will soon lie in the dirt.
- 12“Evil tastes sweet in his mouth. He keeps it under his tongue to enjoy it fully.
- 13He hates to let it go and holds it in his mouth.
- 14But that evil will turn sour in his stomach. It will be like a snake’s bitter poison inside him.
- 15The evil man will spit out the riches he has swallowed. God will make him vomit them up.
- 16What he drank will be like a snake’s poison; it will kill him like the bite of a deadly snake.