| 1 ¶ Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
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| 2 Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make1 haste.
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| 3 I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
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| 4 Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,
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| 5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short,2 and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
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| 6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;3
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| 7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
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| 8 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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| 9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
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| 10 ¶ His children4 shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.
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| 11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
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| 12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
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| 13 Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within5 his mouth:
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| 14 Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
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| 15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
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| 16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
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| 17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods,6 the brooks of honey and butter.
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| 18 That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his7 substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
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| 19 Because he hath oppressed8 and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
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| 20 Surely he shall not feel9 quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
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| 21 There shall none10 of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.
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| 22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked11 shall come upon him.
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| 23 ¶ When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
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| 24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
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| 25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.
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| 26 All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.
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| 27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
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| 28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
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| 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed12 unto him by God.
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