1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
because of my haste within me.
and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.
since man was placed on earth,
and the joy of the godless but for a moment?
and his head reach to the clouds,
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
nor will his place any more behold him.
and his hands will give back his wealth.
but it will lie down with him in the dust.
though he hides it under his tongue,
and holds it in his mouth,
it is the venom of cobras within him.
God casts them out of his belly.
the tongue of a viper will kill him.
the streams flowing with honey and curds.
and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of his trading
he will get no enjoyment.
he has seized a house that he did not build.
he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.
therefore his prosperity will not endure.
the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
Goda will send his burning anger against him
and rain it upon him into his body.
a bronze arrow will strike him through.
the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder;
terrors come upon him.
a fire not fanned will devour him;
what is left in his tent will be consumed.
and the earth will rise up against him.
dragged off in the day of God’sb wrath.
the heritage decreed for him by God.”
20:1−29 Гл. 20 представляет собой еще одно изложение учения о неизбежной расплате грешников и нечестивых за совершенные злодеяния. В ней Софар излагает истину о нравственном начале, положенном в основу Божиего управления миром. Однако эта истина остается вне данной конкретной ситуации.
20:2 побуждают меня отвечать. Заключительные слова Иова в 19:28−29 не остались незамеченными Софаром.
20:29 Вот удел человеку беззаконному от Бога. То, чему учит Софар, в конце концов произойдет, но, к сожалению, у него не нашлось слов о милосердии Божием. Даже в своей предыдущей речи (11:13−20), в которой он призывал Иова изменить образ жизни, Софар ни разу не упомянул о милосердии. Следуя Софару, благословение Божие можно только заслужить.