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Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said:
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Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of mine agitation that is in me.
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I have heard the reproof which putteth me to shame, but out of my understanding my spirit answereth me.
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Knowest thou not this of old time, since man was placed upon earth,
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That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
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Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;
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Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung;
they that have seen him shall say: "Where is he?"
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He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found;
yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
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The eye which saw him shall see him no more;
neither shall his place any more behold him.
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His children shall appease the poor, and his hands shall restore his wealth.
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His bones are full of his youth, but it shall lie down with him in the dust.
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Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
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Though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth;
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Yet his food in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
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He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again;
God shall cast them out of his belly.
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He shall suck the poison of asps;
the viper"s tongue shall slay him.
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He shall not look upon the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and curd.
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That which he laboured for shall he give back, and shall not swallow it down;
according to the substance that he hath gotten, he shall not rejoice.
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For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor;
he hath violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.
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Because he knew no quietness within him, in his greed he suffered nought to escape,
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There was nothing left that he devoured not - therefore his prosperity shall not endure.
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In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits;
the hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon him.
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It shall be for the filling of his belly;
He shall cast the fierceness of His wrath upon him, and shall cause it to rain upon him into his flesh.
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If he flee from the iron weapon, the bow of brass shall strike him through.
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He draweth it forth, and it cometh out of his body;
yea, the glittering point cometh out of his gall;
terrors are upon him.
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All darkness is laid up for his treasures;
a fire not blown by man shall consume him;
it shall go ill with him that is left in his tent.
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The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him.
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The increase of his house shall depart, his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
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This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.