Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,
“Therefore my thoughts answer me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.
I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.
Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,
that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?
Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more.
His children will seek the favor of the poor. His hands will give back his wealth.
His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust.
“Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,
though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth;
yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.
He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him.
He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten.
For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up.
“Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights.
There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure.
In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him.
When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.
He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through.
He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.
All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent.
The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him.
The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath.
This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29 He declareth that two things moved him to speak:…
He declareth that two things moved him to speak: to wit, because Job seemed to touch him, and because he thought he had knowledge sufficient to confute him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–29 Job 20:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Job 20:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Ver. 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said] "If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest," Pro 29:9. Christ piped to that crooked generation, John mourned to them, but all to no purpose; absurd and unreasonable people will never be satisfied or set down, say what yon can to them, such is their pertinacy and peevishness. Job had uttered himself in such passionate expressions as might have moved stony hearts, Sed surdo fabulam. He had set forth his own misery, begged their pity, made an excellent confession of his faith, every word whereof had its weight, each syllable its substance, Ubi habent fere singulae voces aliquid ponderis (Merl.); he had lastly terrified them with the threats of God’s sword; but nothing would do. Zophar here, though he had little to say more than what he had said, Job 11:1-20, yet he takes occasion from Job’s last words, though full of love, to roughly hew at him again, and makes as if he were necessitated thereunto for his own and his fellows’ necessary defence. Vatablus thinks that Zophar here maketh answer, not to the preceding words, but to those in the 12th chapter, where Job had complained that wicked oppressors live commonly in greatest peace and prosperity. Whatever it is, Zophar henceforth will say no more; either he had said what he could, or was satisfied with Job’s reply in the next chapter; or, lastly, quia lusurum se operam credebat, as Mercer observeth; because he thought he should lose his labour, which no wise man would do.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–29 Therefore; for this thy severe sentence and denunciation of…
Therefore; for this thy severe sentence and denunciation of God’s judgments against us, Job 19:29, which much more justly belongs to thyself and is actually executed upon thee; and because of thy reproaches, as it followeth, Job 20:3.
My thoughts cause me to answer: I thought to have troubled myself and thee with no further discourses, considering how exceptious and incorrigible thou art; but my thoughts or consideration of thy reproachful words force me to break silence, and to answer thee as the matter requires.
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For this I make haste; I speak sooner than I intended, because I am not able to contain myself longer, and fear lest I should forget what is in my mind. Possibly he interrupted Job when he was proceeding further in his discourse; or he prevented some of his brethren who made an offer to speak.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 23 Here, I. Zophar begins very passionately, and seems to…
Here, I. Zophar begins very passionately, and seems to be in a great heat at what Job had said. Being resolved to condemn Job for a bad man, he was much displeased that he talked so like a good man, and, as it should seem, broke in upon him, and began abruptly (Job 20:2): Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer. He takes no notice of what Job had said to move their pity, or to evidence his own integrity, but fastens upon the reproof he gave them in the close of his discourse, counts that a reproach, and thinks himself therefore obliged to answer, because Job had bidden them be afraid of the sword, that he might not seem to be frightened by his menaces. The best counsel is too often ill taken from an antagonist, and therefore usually may be well spared. Zophar seemed more in haste to speak than became a wise man; but he excuses his haste with two things: - 1. That Job had given him strong provocation (Job 20:3): "I have heard the check of my reproach, and cannot bear to hear it any longer." Job's friends, I doubt, had spirits too high to deal with a man in his low condition; and high spirits are impatient of contradiction, and think themselves affronted if all about them do not say as they say; they cannot bear a check but they call it the check of their reproach, and then they are bound in honour to return it, if not to draw upon him that gave it. 2. That his own heart gave him a strong instigation. His thoughts caused him to answer (Job 20:2), for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; but he fathers the instigation (Job 20:3) upon the spirit of his understanding: that indeed should cause us to answer; we should rightly apprehend a thing and duly consider it before we speak of it; but whether it did so here or no is a question. Men often mistake the dictates of their passion for the dictates of their reason, and therefore think they do well to be angry.
II. Zophar proceeds very plainly to show the ruin and destruction of wicked people, insinuating that because Job was destroyed and ruined he was certainly a wicked man and a hypocrite. Observe,
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1. How this doctrine is introduced, Job 20:4, where he appeals, (1.) To Job's own knowledge and conviction: "Knowest thou not this? Canst thou be ignorant of a truth so plain? Or canst thou doubt of a truth which has been confirmed by the suffrages of all mankind?" Those know little who do not know that the wages of sin is death. (2.) To the experience of all ages. It was known of old, since man was placed upon the earth; that is, ever since man was made he has had this truth written in his heart, that the sin of sinners will be their ruin; and ever since there were instances of wickedness (which there were soon after man was placed on the earth) there were instances of the punishments of it, witness the exclusions of Adam and Cain. When sin entered into the world death entered with it: all the world knows that evil pursues sinners, whom vengeance suffers not to live (Act 28:4), and subscribes to that (Isa 3:11), Woe to the wicked; it shall be ill with him, sooner or later.
2. How it is laid down (Job 20:5): The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. Observe, (1.) He asserts the misery, not only of those who are openly wicked and profane, but of hypocrites, who secretly practice wickedness under a show and profession of religion, because such a wicked man he looked upon Job to be; and it is true that a form of godliness, if it be made use of for a cloak of maliciousness, does but make bad worse. Dissembled piety is double iniquity, and the ruin that attends it will be accordingly. The hottest place in hell will be the portion of hypocrites, as our Saviour intimates, Mat 24:51. (2.) He grants that wicked men may for a time prosper, may be secure and easy, and very merry. You may see them in triumph and joy, triumphing and rejoicing in their wealth and power, their grandeur and success, triumphing and rejoicing over their poor honest neighbours whom they vex and oppress: they feel no evil, they fear none. Job's friends were loth to own, at first, that wicked people might prosper at all (Job 4:9), until Job proved it plainly (Job 9:24, Job 12:6), and now Zophar yields it; but, (3.) He lays it down for a certain truth that they will not prosper long. Their joy is but for a moment, and will quickly end in endless sorrow. Though he be ever so great, and rich, and jovial, the hypocrite will be humbled, and mortified, and made miserable.
3. How it is illustrated, Job 20:6-9. (1.) He supposes his prosperity to be very high, as high as you can imagine, Job 20:6. It is not his wisdom and virtue, but his worldly wealth or greatness, that he accounts his excellency, and values himself upon. We will suppose that to mount up to the heavens, and, since his spirit always rises with his condition, you may suppose that with it his head reaches to the clouds. He is every way advanced; the world has done the utmost it can for him. He looks down upon all about him with disdain, while they look up to him with admiration, envy, or fear. We will suppose him to bid fair for a universal monarchy. And, though he cannot but have made himself many enemies before he arrived to this pitch of prosperity, yet he thinks himself as much out of the reach of their darts as if he were in the clouds. (2.) He is confident that his ruin will accordingly be very great, and his fall the more dreadful for his having risen so high: He shall perish for ever, Job 20:7. His pride and security were the certain presages of his misery. This will certainly be true of all impenitent sinners in the other world; they shall be undone, for ever undone. But Zophar means his ruin in this world; and indeed sometimes notorious sinners are remarkably cut off by present judgments; they have reason enough to fear what Zophar here threatens even the triumphant sinner with. [1.] A shameful destruction: He shall perish like his own dung or dunghill, so loathsome is he to God and all good men, and so willing will the world be to part with him, Psa 119:119; Isa 66:24. [2.] A surprising destruction. He will be brought into desolation in a moment (Psa 73:19), so that those about him, that saw him but just now, will ask, "Where is he? Could he that made so great a figure vanish and expire so suddenly?" [3.] A swift destruction, Job 20:8. He shall fly away upon the wings of his own terrors, and be chased away by the just imprecations of all about him, who would gladly get rid of him. [4.] An utter destruction. It will be total; he shall go away like a dream, or vision of the night, which was a mere phantasm, and, whatever in it pleased the fancy, it is quite gone, and nothing of it remains but what serves us to laugh at the folly of. It will be final (Job 20:9): The eye that saw him, and was ready to adore him, shall see him no more, and the place he filled shall no more behold him, having given him an eternal farewell when he went to his own place, as Judas, Act 1:25.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–29 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite,.... Notwithstanding the sad distressed…
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite,.... Notwithstanding the sad distressed condition Job was in, an account of which is given in the preceding chapter, enough to pierce a heart of stone, notwithstanding his earnest request to his friends to have pity on him, and notwithstanding the noble confession of his faith he had made, which showed him to be a good man, and the excellent advice he gave his friends to cease persecuting him, for their own good, as well as for his peace; yet, regardless of these things, Zophar starts up and makes a reply, and attacks him with as much heat and passion, wrath and anger, as ever, harping upon the same string, and still representing Job as a wicked man and an hypocrite;
and said, as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 Zophar, after a short preface, asserts, that the prosperity,…
Zophar, after a short preface, asserts, that the prosperity, of the wicked is short, and his ruin sure, ver. 1-9. He describes his misery in many particulars, ver. 10-29.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 Zophar answers Job, and largely details the wretchedness of
CHAPTER XX
Zophar answers Job, and largely details the wretchedness of
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the wicked and the hypocrite; shows that the rejoicing of
such is short and transitory, 1-9.
That he is punished in his family and in his person, 10-14.
That he shall be stripped of his ill-gotten wealth, and shall
be in misery, though in the midst of affluence, 15-23.
He shall at last die a violent death, and his family and
property be finally destroyed, 24-29.
NOTES ON CHAP. XX
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29 Job 20:1. Then answered Zophar — Here Zophar, although…
Job 20:1. Then answered Zophar — Here Zophar, although he had nothing new to advance, hastily interrupts Job, being extremely provoked by his threatening them with the judgments of God, and in his speech appears to be hurried by his passion beyond all bounds. He tells him it is in vain to tax their suspicions with unkindness; for it was of public notoriety, agreeable to the universal experience of mankind, ever since the creation, that suffering was the portion of the wicked. He then, under colour of describing the wicked man, and his destiny, charges Job with the most enormous crimes, and marks him out as a person in whom God had given an example of the justice of his providence; and concludes with a plain intimation, that he was thoroughly persuaded that Job was that very wicked man, that oppressor of the poor, which they had from the beginning suspected him to be.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 Therefore - לכן lākên, “certainly, truly.” In view of…
Therefore - לכן lākên, “certainly, truly.” In view of what has been just said. Or perhaps the word means merely certainly, truly.
Do my thoughts cause me to answer - This is variously rendered. The Vulgate renders it, Idcirco cogitationes meae variae succedunt sibi, et mens in diversa rapitur - “Therefore my various thoughts follow in succession, and the mind is distracted.” The Septuagint, “I did not suppose that thou wouldst speak against these things, and you do not understand more than I.” How this was ever made from the Hebrew it is impossible to say. On the word “thoughts,” see the notes at Job 4:13. The word denotes thoughts which divide and distract the mind; not calm and collected reflections, but those which disturb, disconcert, and trouble. He acknowledges that it was not calm reflection which induced him to reply, but the agitating emotions produced by the speech of Job. The word rendered “cause me to answer” (ישׁיבוּני yeshı̂ybûnı̂y), “cause me to return” - and Jerome understood it as meaning that his thoughts returned upon him in quick and troublesome succession, and says in his Commentary on Job, that the meaning is, “I am troubled and agitated because you say that you sustain these evils from God without cause, when nothing evil ought to be suspected of God.”
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And for this I make haste - Margin, “my haste is in me.” The meaning is, “the impetuosity of my feelings urges me on. I reply on account of the agitation of my soul, which will admit of no delay.” His heart was full, and he hastened to give vent to his feelings in impassioned and earnest language.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 Therefore. From this concession which thou hast just made.…
Therefore. From this concession which thou hast just made. (Menochius) --- Various. Hebrew, "Hence do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I hasten." Septuagint, "I did not thus suspect that thou wouldst contradict these things," &c. (Haydock) --- Sophar only speaks this second time; and he produces little new, but begins with an air of more moderation, as if the arguments of Job had made some impression upon him. (Calmet) --- He attempts to prove that the wicked have no comfort long; which is true in one sense, as all time is short, though they may prosper all their lives, as Job corrects his observation, chap. xxi. 13. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 III. Zophar and Job: Ch. 20–21
III. Zophar and Job: Ch. 20–21
A.—Zophar: For a time indeed the evil-doer can be prosperous; but so much the more terrible and irremediable will be his destruction
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Job 20
1. Introduction—censuring Job with violence, and Theme of the discourse: Job_20:1-5
1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said:
2 Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer,
and for this I make haste.
3 I have heard the check of my reproach,
and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
4 Knowest thou not this of old,
since man was placed upon earth,
5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
2. Expansion of the theme, showing from experience that the prosperity and riches of the ungodly must end in the deepest misery: Job_20:6-29
6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach unto the clouds;
7 yet he shall perish forever, like his own dung:
they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
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.
9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more;
neither shall his place any more behold him.
10 His children shall seek to please the poor,
and his hands shall restore their goods.
11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth,
which shall lie down with him in the dust.
12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth,
though he hide it under his tongue;
13 though he spare, and forsake it not,
but keep it still within his mouth:
14 yet his meat in his bowels is turned,
it is the gall of asps within him.
15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again:
God shall cast them out of his belly.
16 He shall suck the poison of asps;
the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
17 He shall not see the rivers,
the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
18 That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down:
according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
19 Because he hath oppressed, and hath forsaken the poor;
because he hath violently taken away a house which he builded not;
20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly,
he shall not save of that which he desired.
21 There shall none of his meat be left;
therefore shall no man look for his goods.
22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits;
every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
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.
24 He shall flee from the iron weapon,
and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body;
yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall;
terrors are upon him!
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.
27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity;
and the earth shall rise up against him.
28 The increase of his house shall depart,
and his goods shall flow away in the day of His wrath.
29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
and the heritage appointed unto him by God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. A new variation of the favorite theme of the friends—the perishableness of the prosperity of the ungodly.—The formula by which it is this time expressed is (Job_20:5): “The triumphing of the wicked is of short duration, and the joy of the ungodly only for a moment.” In the further development of this thought the wicked, who encounters inevitable destruction, is described as a rich man, who avariciously seizes on the possessions of others, and whose property, unjustly acquired, becomes the prey of an exterminating fire that destroys himself, and all that belongs to him. This on the one side links itself to the former description of Eliphaz, Job_15:25 seq., on the other side, however, it glances aside with malicious suspicion at the former prosperity of Job, the foundation of which the speaker would indicate as presumably impure and unrighteous.—The discourse is divided into a short introduction (Job_20:2-5), and a discussion extending through four strophes of six verses each (in one instance of five), together with a closing verse, which stands as an isolated epiphonema.
2. Introduction, together with the theme of the discourse: Job_20:2-5.
Job_20:2. Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me.—[לָכֵן, by some rendered “still, yet,” (Umbreit, Noyes, Rodwell), or “truly,” (Elzas), but incorrectly]. השיב with Accus. of the person, as in Job_13:22 [E. V., “cause me to answer,” and so Fürst, and this would correspond with Zophar’s eagerness to speak; but the other signification is the more common]. שְׂעִפִּים as in Job_4:13.—And hence (comes) the storming within me.—Lit. “my haste in me”: חוּשׁ here in the sense of perturbatio; and בִּי in immediate connection with חוּשִׁי, and more precisely qualifying it, comp. Job_4:21.—Both לָכֵן in a, and בַּעֲבוּר in b, point forward to the statement given in Job_20:3 of the cause of Job’s discontent and excitement. [“On this account he feels called upon by his thoughts to answer, and hence his inward impulse leaves him no rest, because he hears from Job a contemptuous wounding reproof of himself.” Ewald, Hahn, Wordsworth, etc., point backward to the closing menace of Job’s discourse (Job_19:29) as the cause of Zophar’s feeling]. בַּעֲבוּר, which is evidently separated from חוּשִׁי by the accentuation is used as a preposition = “on account of,” but without its complement. We must supply either כֵּן (from לכן in a), or זֹאת; comp. the similar elliptical use of כְעַלּ in Isa_59:18. To connect בַּעֲבוּד immediately with חוּשִׁי: “because of my storming (Del. “because of my feeling”) [“because of my eager haste,” Ges., Con., Carey, Noyes] within me,” produces a less symmetrical structure for the verse, and a flatter sense.
Job_20:3. A chiding to my shame must I hear! Comp. Isa_53:5 [“chastisement of our peace,” i.e., which tends to our peace; so here, the chastisement or chiding which tends to my shame.—The E. V.’s rendering, “check of my reproach” is scarcely intelligible. Neither is “I have heard” sufficiently exact for the fut. אשמע, which means rather “I have to hear.”—E.].—Nevertheless the spirit out of my understanding gives me an answer; i.e., “out of the fulness of its perception it furnishes me with information as to what is to be thought of Job with his insulting attacks” (Delitzsch), viz., that he is to be warned and punished as an ungodly man. [E. V., יַעֲנֵנִי, as Hiph. “causeth me to answer;” better as Kal “answereth,” and thus equivalent to השׁיב, Job_20:2. This exordium is strikingly suggestive of the prominent traits of Zophar’s character; his mental discursiveness and vivacity, or perhaps volatility, indicated by שׂעפים, his thoughts shot forth in various directions; his eager impetuosity, חושׁי, he could scarcely contain himself until Job had finished, and then broke out hotly; his proud sensitive egotism, especially prominent in Job_20:3 a, “the chiding of my shame must I hear;” his subjective self-sufficient dogmatism—“the spirit out of my understanding gives answer.” It is questionable whether רוּחַ here is to be taken as Renan explains, of the universal (not as he terms it “impersonal”) spirit (comp. Job_32:8), speaking in man. The dogmatic character of the speaker, and the prominence which he gives to his own personality, is not altogether in harmony with such a view. Moreover, Elihu is put forward by the poet as the representative of an internal revelation, even as Eliphaz represents the external. Zophar on the other hand represents the individual reason, as Bildad represents the collective traditional wisdom of the race. See Introduction.—E.].
Job_20:4-5 present the substance of these communications of Zophar’s spirit in the form of a question addressed to Job.
Job_20:5. Knowest thou this indeed [either “the question implying that the contrary would be inferred from Job’s language” (Con.), or “sarcastically, equivalent to: thou surely knowest; or in astonishment, what! dost thou not know!” (Del.) hence it is unnecessary (with E. V., Ges., etc.), to supply the negative, הֲלֹא = הֲ] from eternity (i.e., to be true, מִנִּי־עַד, as a virtual adjective, or as a virtual predicate-accusative, Ewald § 336, b), since man was placed upon the earth. שִׂים Infinit. with an indefinite subject, “since one placed” [or, since the placing of] as in Job_13:9.—אָדָם, not precisely a proper name, referring to the first man, but collective or generic; comp. Deu_4:32.
Job_20:5. That the triumphing of the wicked is short (lit., from near, i. e., not extending far; comp. Deu_32:17; Jer_23:23), and the joy of the ungodly only for a moment.—עֲדֵי in עֲדֵי־רֶגַע, like עַד in 2Ki_9:22 expresses the idea of duration, “during, for.” The whole question is intended to convey doubt and wonder that Job, judging by his speeches, was entirely unacquainted with the familiar proposition touching the short duration of the triumphing of the wicked which is made the theme of what follows. [This is Zophar’s short and cutting rejoinder to Job’s triumphant outburst in Job_19:25 seq.—That jubilant exclamation was, as Zophar indirectly suggests, a רִנְנַת רָשָׁע, that exulting joy a שִׂמְחַת חָנֵף].
3. The expansion of the theme: Job_20:6-29.
First Strophe: Job_20:6-11. [The wicked, however prosperous, perishes utterly, together with his family and acquisitions; he himself in the prime of life].
Job_20:6. Though his height (שִׂיא from נשׂא, comp. שׂואPsa_89:10) [i. e., his exaltation in rank and power] mount up to Heaven, and his head reach unto the clouds; comp, Isa_14:13 seq.; Oba_1:4. [הִגַּיעַ, not causative (Del.), but parallel to עלה, as ראשׂ to שׁיא].
Job_20:7. Like his dung he perishes forever; they who have seen him say: Where is he?—The subj. here is the חָנֵף, Job_20:5 b, and so continues to the end of the de scription. כְּגֶלְלוֹ, “like his dung,” from גֵּל, globulus stercoris, Zep_1:17; Eze_4:12; Eze_4:15 (comp. גָּלָל, 1Ki_14:10). This comparison, which beyond a doubt expresses a meaning which is unfavorable and disgraceful to the ungodly man, refers to his own dung; in the same way that this is at once swept away, on account of its ill odor, so is he speedily removed by the Divine judgment (comp. Ezek. l.c.). In regard to the coarse harshness of the expression, comp. below, Job_20:15, as also Zophar’s former discourse, Job_11:12. [“The word is not low, as Eze_4:12; Zep_1:17 shows, and the figure, though revolting, is still very expressive.” Delitzsch]. The following explanations involve an unsuitable softening [and weakening] of the sense. (1) The attempt of Wetzstein in Delitzsch [I. 377 seq. adopted by Del. and Merx] to identify גֶּלְלוֹ with the cowdung heaped up for fuel in the dwelling of the wicked. (2) The attempt of Schultens, Ewald, Hirz., Heiligst., [Con.], to read כִּגְלָלוֹ, “according to his greatness, in proportion as he was great,” from גְּלָל, magnificentia, majestas [Good (followed by Wemyss) adopts this with the additional amendment of כ to ב, understanding the passage to teach that the wicked perishes in the midst of his greatness]. (3) The unfounded translation of the Syriac: “like the whirlwind” [regarding גלל, or גל as = גלגל, and so Fürst, who however defines it to mean “chaff.” Either of these renderings, as well as Wetzstein’s, makes the suffix superfluous.—E.]. (4) The equally untenable rendering of some of the Rabbis (as Gekatilia, Nachamanides): “as he turns himself,” or “in turning around, as one turns the hand around.”
Job_20:8. As a dream he flies away [and is no more to be found: and he is scared away as a vision of the night].—For the use of “dream” and “night-vision” (חִזָּיוֹן as in Job_4:13 [“so everywhere in the book of Job instead of חָזוֹן, from which it perhaps differs as visum from visio,” Delitzsch]), as figures for that which is fleeting, quickly perishable, comp. Isa_29:7; Psa_73:20; Psa_90:5. יֻדַּד, Hiph.: “is scared away,” to wit, by God’s judicial intervention; a stronger expression than the Active יִדַּד, “he flies.”
Job_20:9. An eye has looked upon him (been sharply fixed upon him; שׁזף as in Job_28:7); it does it not again; comp. Job_5:3; Job_7:8; Job_8:18. [The verb שָׁזַף is found in Son_1:6 in the sense of scorching, or making swarthy (cogn. שָׁדַףadurere). Hence the signification of a fixed scorching look is attached to it by Delitzsch. It may at least be said of it that it means as much as our “scan,” or “gaze upon.” It is suggested perhaps by the lofty position, the heaven-touching, cloud-capped attitude of the wicked in Job_20:6. Such a height, which the sun would (שׁזף) look on, and cause to glow, the eye of man would (שׁזף) gaze on intently. The clause is thus equivalent to: There was a time when he was the observed of all observers, but it is so no more—E.].—And his place beholds him no more.—מְקוֹמוֹ, which is doubtless the subject of b, is here construed as a feminine, as in Gen_18:24; 2Sa_17:12.
Job_20:10. His children must seek to please the poor.—יְרַצּוּ, 3d plur. Piel from רצה = to propitiate, appease, synonymous with חִלָּה פְנֵי־פ׳, an expression which is to be understood in a sense altogether general, and not specifically of asking alms [Barnes: “they would be beggars of beggars”] nor of appeasing by the use of money, although the second member approximates the latter meaning quite closely. The ancient versions read יָרֹצּוּ, or יְרִצְּצוּ (from רצֹץ), and thus obtained the meaning, which is far less suitable, “His sons (object) the lowly smite down.” [Ewald, adopting this definition for the verb, and amending בָּנָיו to הָפְנָיו translates: “his fists smote down the weak”].—And his hands (must) give back his wealth: to wit, by the hands of his children, who will have to appease the creditors of their father. [“The suffix in ידיו might refer back, in the way of individualization, to the plural in בנים (so Noyes); but against this is the fact that also in the following verse the wicked man is the subject of the discourse.” Schlott.]. The meaning would be much less simple if (with Carey, Dillmann) [Bernard, Renan, Lee], “his hands” were understood literally, and after the preceding mention of his death we were carried back here to the period of his life.
Job_20:11. His bones were full of youthful vigor (so correctly the LXX., Targ., Pesh.—while the Vulg., Rosenm., Vaih., etc., understand it of “secret sins,” and comp. Psa_90:8), [Jerome, however, followed, by E. V., Lee, and Barnes, combining the two ideas of sin and youth, while Renan, Good, Wemyss, Carey, render “secret sins.” Our other authorities, Ew., Dillmann, Schlott., Rodwell, Words., Con., Ber., Elz., with Ges. and Fürst agree with the LXX., etc.]—and it lies down with him in the dust; or “it is laid down,” viz., his youthful vigor; for the use of תִּשְׁכָב referring back to עֲלוּמָיו, comp. Job_14:19; Psa_103:5 b. For “dust,” meaning the “grave,” comp. Job_19:25; Job_17:16.
Second Strophe: Job_20:12-16. A description of the perishableness of the ungodly man’s prosperity by a comparison with poison, sweet to the taste, but deadly in its results.
Job_20:12-13 are the protasis dependent on אִם Job_20:14 seq., the apodosis.
Job_20:12. Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth (הִמְתִּיק lit., “makes sweet,” Ewald, § 122, c [Green, § 79, 2]); he hides it under his tongue, i.e., he does not swallow it down, in order to enjoy the sweet taste of it so much the longer [“the evildoer likened to an epicure,” Delitzsch.—Renan: Comme un bonbon qu’ on laisse fondre dans la bouche].
Job_20:13. He is sparing of it (חמל to indulge, to spare, here with עַל, the preposition commonly used with verbs of covering, protecting, guarding) and does not let it go, and retains it in his palate.—The tenacity with which the evil-doer persists in the lustful enjoyment of his wickedness, is set forth by five parallel and essentially synonymous expressions accumulated together.
Job_20:14. (Nevertheless) his food is changed in his bowels—into what is explained in the second member. The poison of asps is within him.—מְרוֹרָה (= מְרֵרָה, Job_16:13), lit, “gall,” is used here for “poison,”—because the ancients used interchangeably terms representing the bitter and the poisonous; comp. ראשׁ = a bitter, poisonous plant and the poison of serpents, in Job_20:16; Deu_32:33. The word is naturally chosen here as antithetic to המתיק, verse 12. [On פְּתָנִים see below, Job_20:16.]
Job_20:15. He hath swallowed down riches.—חַיִל, “possessions, riches, property,” without the accompanying notion of forcible acquisition which rather first makes its appearance in בָּלַע. God will cast them forth again out of his belly—i.e., his riches, or that which he has swallowed. The greedy devourer of wealth will be made to vomit it forth, as by pains of colic. The LXX., from motives of decorum, substituted ἄγγελος here for θεός; in Zophar’s mouth, however, the latter word need not surprise us.
Job_20:16 returns back to the figure of Job_20:14 b in order to describe more minutely the effect of the poison which he had been enjoying. [He sucked in the poison of asps], the tongue of adders slays him—the tongue being regarded as the seat or container of the poison (Psa_140:4 [3]), the original figure being at the same time changed, and the fatal bite taking the place of the deadly draught; comp. Pro_23:32. [פֶּתֶן, LXX. ἀσπίς; according to some, e.g., Kitto, Pictorial Bible, the boeten of the Arabs, about a foot long, spotted black and white, the bite instantly fatal; according to others, the el-Haje of the Arabs, from three to five feet long, dark green, with oblique bands of brown, resembling the cobra di capello in its power of swelling the neck and rising on its tail in striking its prey. The אֶפְעֶה cannot be determined. See the Dictionaries and Cyclopædias, “Asp,” “Viper,” “Serpent,” etc.]
Third Strophe: Job_20:17-22. [The evil-doer cannot enjoy his prosperity—for he must restore his ill-gotten gains.]
Job_20:17. He may not delight in the sight of (ראה ב as in Job_3:9) brooks, streams, rivers of honey and cream.—[The negative אַל and the apocopated יֵרֶא express the concurrence of the speaker’s moral judgment and feeling with the affirmation of the fact. They are a mental Amen to the prediction.—E.] After פְּלַגּוֹת in the absol. state there follow in apposition two nouns in the construct state, נַהֲרֵי גַהֲלֵי, which form an assonance, and are co-ordinate. [Dillmann: “It is a more poetic artistic expression than the simple נהרי דבשׁ ונהלי חמאה.” Hupfeld conjectures that נהרי may be a gloss. See Gesen. § 255, 3 a.] “Honey and milk” (or here, by way of gradation, “cream,” comp. Isa_7:15; Isa_7:22) are a familiar figurative expression denoting luxurious prosperity, as in Exo_3:8; Exo_3:17, and often; found also in the ancient classical poets, in their descriptions of the golden age; e.g., Theocritus, Idyll. V. 124 seq.; Ovid, Metam. I. 111 seq.: Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant; comp. Virgil, Ecl. IV. 30; Horace, Epod. 16, 47.
Job_20:18. Giving back that which he has labored for (יָגָע, subst. synonymous with יְגִיעַ) [the participial clause מֵשִׁיב יָגָע coming first, and assigning the reason for what follows] he enjoys it not—lit. he swallows it not, he will not be happy. According to the property of his exchange (תְּמוּרָה as in Job_15:31) he rejoices not—i.e., in accordance with the fact that he employed sinful, unjust means of exchange, in order to gain temporal possessions and enjoyments, he has no pleasure in the latter, he must lack the joy which he had promised himself in them. So correctly Ewald, Delitzsch, Dillmann, etc.; while Hirzel and others [E. V. Lee, Bernard, Renan, Rodwell], following the Targum, translate as though instead of כְּחֵיל תְּמוּרָתוֹ, the passage read כְּחֵילוֹ תְּמ׳ (“as his possessions, so his exchange”, i.e., his restitution). Gesenius, Schlottmann [Conant, Elzas] render: “as his property that is to be exchanged, i.e., to be restored” (similarly Hupfeld: sicut opes permutando comparatas), which, however, yields a strained sense [and is also “contrary to the relative independence of the separate lines of the verse, which our poet almost always preserves, and is also opposed by the interposing of ולא יבלע.” Del. Carey explains: “to the full amount of its value,” taking חיל in the sense of “power,” or “fullness”—a doubtful signification when used in connection with property. To be noted is עלם in our Book for עלז or עלץ].
Job_20:19. For he crushed, abandoned the poor—i.e., maltreated with persistent injustice the unprotected and defenceless. He has taken houses (lit. “a house,” collective) for his plunder, and builded them not—i.e., has not re-builded them, has not reached the point of reconstructing and fitting them up according to his own taste, because he was not allowed to retain permanent possession of them. Against the rendering of the Targ., Vulg., etc., also of Hupfeld [and E. V.]: “he has plundered a house which he builded not,” it may be urged that in that case it must have read וְלֹא בָנָהוּ. The causal relation in which the first member is placed to the second by Delitzsch: “because he cast down, let the destitute lie helpless, he shall not, in case he has seized a house, build it up” [Conant: “the houses he has plundered he shall not build up”] is indicated with too little clearness by the כִּי at the beginning of the verse, and yields a meaning entirely too artificial. [Other constructions, according to the causal rendering of כִּי, are (a) That of the E. V.: “Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor: because he hath violently taken away a house which he builded not; surely he shall not,” etc.; which cannot be justified in rendering כִּי differently in Job_20:19 and in Job_20:20. (b) That of Noyes and Rodwell, who introduce the apodosis in 20b. (c) That of Good, Lee, Wemyss, Carey,—which assumes the apodosis to be introduced by עַל־כֵּן in Job_20:21 b.—E.].
Job_20:20. For (כִּי co-ordinate to that at the beginning of the preceding verse) he knew no rest in his belly: the seat of his gluttony or avarice. שָׁלֵו here a substantive (differently from Job_16:12, where it is an adjective), synonymous with שַׁלְוָה, Pro_17:1. For the sentiment comp. Isa_59:8. [E. V.: “he shall not feel quietness,” etc., overlooks the distinction of tenses in the verse: יָדַע Perfect, יְמַלֵּט Imperf. Whether we translate כִּי “for” or “because,” there is a relation of antecedent and consequent between a and b. This has been the evil-doer’s character—insatiable voracity; this shall be his doom—to be stripped of every thing.—E.] (Therefore) he shall not escape with his dearest treasure.—מִלֵּט without an object = to escape, like פִּלֵּט, Job_23:7; or also = מִלֵּט נַפְשׁוּ, comp. Amo_2:15. The ב in בַּחֲמוּדוֹ is the ב of accompaniment or of possession, as in Job_19:20. [Not, therefore, instrumental (Schlottmann—the object conceived of as the instrument), nor partitive: “of all his delights he shall save nothing” (Conant). The rendering of Carey, Elzas, etc.: “in his appetite he let (or lets) nothing escape,” is inadmissible on account of the passive form of חמוד, which signifies not the act, but the object, of desire.—E.]
Job_20:21. Nothing escaped his greediness [or gluttony]: lit. “there is nought of a remainder [or of that which has escaped] to his food—comp. Job_18:19. [אָכְלוֹ from אֱכֹל, not אֹכֶל (E. V. “meat”); hence, more literally still than above: “there is nothing that has escaped his eating”]. Therefore his wealth shall not endure.—יחיל, as in Psa_10:5, means “to be solid, powerful, enduring.” טוּב, “wealth,” or also “prosperity,” as in Job_21:16. [E. V.: “no man shall look for his goods,” which can only mean (with יחיל), no one shall wait for his property as his heir,—a meaning both less simple and less suitable than the above.]
Job_20:22. In the fullness of his superfluity it is strait with him—i.e., distress overtakes him, meaning external poverty (not internal anguish, etc.), as b shows. The Inf. constr. מְלֹאות (written like קְרֹאות, Jdg_8:1), from מלא, after the analogy of לה׳, verbs; comp. Gesen. § 75 [§ 74], Rems. 20 and 21 [Green, § 166, 2]. יֵצֶר with retracted tone for יֵצַר [“on account of the following monosyllable.” Del.]; comp. Gen_32:8; Ewald, § 232 b.—Every hand of a wretched one (comp. Job_3:20) comes upon him (comp. Job_15:21)—viz.: to inflict retribution on him for the violence suffered at his hands, or in order to demand of him plundered property. [The primary reference is doubtless to the victims of his own rapacity, although we may give it, with Delitzsch, a more general application: “the rich uncompassionate man becomes a defenceless prey of the proletaries.”] So according to the reading עָמֵל, comp. Job_3:20. If, following the LXX. and the Vulg. (with Eichhorn, De Wette, etc.), we read עָמָל, we obtain the meaning—in itself indeed admissible, but less in harmony with Job_20:19-21 : “the whole power of misery comes upon him.” [So Rodwell. Bernard, Noyes and Renan take יד as in Job_33:2, for “wound” or “blow;’ and translate: “every blow of misfortune” (Ren.), or “every blow of the wretched,” i.e., every blow which cometh upon the wretched (Noyes), or every blow, every plague that can render a man miserable (Bernard).]
Fourth Strophe: Job_20:23-28. The end of the wicked according to the divine judgment.
Job_20:23. That it may serve to the filling of his belly, He casts the glow of His wrath upon him.—The subject is God, although He is not expressly named; as in Job_16:7. The Jussive יְהִי, at the head of the verse, is rendered by most as a simple future: “it shall come to pass,” viz. that which follows. But to express this we should rather expect וְהָיָה (as frequently with the prophets), or וַיְהִי (as frequently in prose). For this reason the construction of the Jussive as dependent on יְשַלַּח is to be preferred to any other (so Stickel, Hahn [Ewald], Dillmann. etc.). [It is certainly simpler, and in the spirit and style of Zophar in this discourse to take יְהִי as an independent verb, forming the first of the series of jussives in this verse, each of which expresses the strong sympathy of his feelings with the result which he predicts. See above on אַל־יֵרֶא, Job_20:17; and Dillmann’s remark below.—E.]—The Jussives יְשַׁלַּח and וֲיַמְטֵר, however, are to be explained on the ground that the passage is intended to set forth the necessity for God’s punitive agency as established in the divine order of the world [“and at the same time to indicate his own agreement therewith.” Dillm.]. In regard to the descent of the divine wrath in the form of a rain of fire, comp. above on Job_18:15.—As to the phrase: “to fill the belly of any one,” comp. above Job_20:20; Luk_15:16.—And causes to rain upon him with his food.—(בְּ serving to introduce the object; comp. Job_16:4; Job_16:10). The subject here again is God. The food which He causes to rain upon the wicked, to wit, his just punishment (comp. Job_9:18; Jer_9:14 [15]) is called “his food” (לַחְמוֹ), viz. that of the wicked, that which he is appointed to feed upon. [Ewald: “rain upon him what can satisfy him.”—Schlottm.: “Such a rain of fire, figuratively speaking, is to be the food of the ungodly, instead of the former dainty morsel of wickedness (comp. Job_20:12-13).”—Wordsworth: “He surfeited himself with rapine, and God will make him surfeit with His revenge.”—Carey: “Just as in Psa_11:6, the wicked are said to drink snares, fire and brimstone, so here the glutton shall have them for food.”] It is possible also to refer the suffix to God. Much too artificial is the rendering of the Targ., Aben-Ezra, Gerson, Delitzsch: “He causeth it to rain upon him into his flesh,”—although to be sure לחם might in accordance with Zep_1:17 mean “flesh.” [In Zeph., however, the parallelism: “and their blood is poured forth as dust, and heir flesh (לְחֻמָּם) as dung,” makes the application clear; whereas here he whole context points to the usual literal application.—E.]—עָלֵימוֹ, poetic, full-toned form for עָלָיו as in Job_22:2; Job_27:23. [“The morally indignant speech which threatens punishment, intentionally seeks after rare solemn words, and dark-some tones.” Delitzsch. The partial assonance of עלימו בלתומו may also have had some influence in determining this form, which in this instance at least can scarcely be regarded as plur., on account of the pointed individual application to Job. The rendering of E. V., Good, Lee, Wem., Rod., Elz.: “and shall rain it upon him while he is eating,” is at variance with the form, and misses the striking force of the figure as given above.—E.]
Job_20:24 seq. describe how the divine decree of wrath is historically realized by the introduction of several illustrations, the first being that of a warlike pursuit and wounding [“a highly picturesque description.” Ewald].—If he flee from the iron armor (comp. Job_39:21), a bow of brass (Psa_18:35) pierces him through (comp. Jdg_5:26). [If he escapes one danger, it is only to fall into another, and from the same source]. The two members of the verse, which are put together asyndetically, are related to each other as antecedent and consequent, as in Job_19:4.
Job_20:25. He draws it out (viz. the arrow, in order to save his life, comp. Jdg_3:22). [The Targ. reads מִגִּוָהּ: he (the enemy, or God) draws, and it (the sword) comes out of its sheath; against which Delitzsch objects that גֵו cannot signify vagina. Carey also translates שָׁלַף, “it is drawn,” i.e. the sword of the pursuing enemy, who plunges it into him, and then draws it out again; but this is much less natural, and mars the terrible vividness of the description given of his unavailing struggle with his doom.—E.]—Then it comes forth out of the body; or also “out of the back,” in case גֵּוָה, after the analogy of נהרה, Job_3:4, should be identified with גֵּו. But the difficulty of accomplishing such a manipulation of the weapon scarcely permits this assumption (adopted among the moderns by Dillmann), [“The evildoer is imagined as hit in the back, the arrow consequently as passing out at the front.” Del.], which, moreover, has against it the following member: and the gleaming steel (comes) out of his gall (comp. Job_16:13; and above on Job_20:14 of this ch.). In regard to בָּרָק, lit. “lightning,” here “gleaming steel, metal head” (not a “stream of blood,” as Hahn explains it), comp. Deu_32:41; Nah_3:3; Hab_3:11.—Upon him (come) the terrors of death.—The plur. אֵמִים (from אֵימָה, Job_9:34; Job_13:21) could indeed be connected as subject with יַהֲלֹךְ construed ad sensum (Hahn, Delitzsch), [Conant]; but the accents connect יַהֲליְ rather with the second member of the verse, so that some such verb as “come, break upon,” must be supplied with עָלָיו אֵמִים. Equally opposed to the accents, and altogether too difficult is the rendering of Rosenmüller and Hirzel [Schultens, Carey]: “he goes [departs, “he is going!” Carey] terrors upon him,” i.e., while terrors are upon him.
Job_20:26. Further description of the divine decree of punishment, with special reference to the wicked man’s possessions.—All darkness is hoarded up for his treasures, i.e., every kind of calamity, by divine appointment, awaits the treasures which he has gathered and laid up (צְפוּנִים as in Psa_17:14; comp. Deu_33:19). To the agency of the earthly-minded evildoer storing up treasures for himself corresponds the agency of God in opposition storing up the destruction which is destined to overtake them. Comp. θεσαυρίζειν ἑαυτω ὅργήν, Rom_2:6. [As Delitzsch suggests, there is somewhat of a play upon words in טָמוּן לִצְפוּנָיו].—A fire which is not blown consumes him, lit. “which was not blown” (לֹא־נֻפָּח, a relative clause, Gesenius, § 143, 1 [§ 121, 3], hence a “fire of God” burning down from heaven (comp. Job_1:16; Job_18:15; Isa_33:11 seq.). תְּאָכְלֵהוּ is most simply explained (with Ewald, Hupfeld, Dillmann) [Fürst, Conant], as an alternate form of the Jussive Kal, instead of the more common תֹּאכְלֵהוּ, comp. Ewald, § 253, a. [Gesenius takes it as Piel for תְּאַכְּלֵהוּ, with lengthened vowel in place of Daghesh-forte; Delitzsch as Poel with Hholem shortened to Kamets-Khatuph; Hirzel, Olsh., Green (§ 93, a; § 111, 2, e) as Pual for תְּאֻכְּלֵהוּ, with the rendering: “a fire not blown shall be made to consume them.” In נֻפָח the gender of אֵשׁ is disregarded, the adoption of the masc. in both the verbs בפח and ירע making the personification of the supernatural fire more vivid. See on רוח Job_1:19.—E.]—It must devour that which survives (that which has escaped former judgments; שָׂרִיד as in Job_20:21) in his tent.—יֵרַע is Jussive Kal [to be explained like the preceding Jussives, Job_20:17; Job_20:23] from רעה, “to graze, to feed upon,” the subject here being אֵשׁ used in the masc.; comp. for this rare masc. usage of אֵשׁPsa_104:4; Jer_48:45. Olshausen’s emendation to יֵרָע (Jussive Niph.=“it shall be devoured”) is unnecessary. [E. V., Bernard, Barnes, Carey, etc., render: “It shall fare ill with him that is left,” etc., or “That which is left, etc., shall perish, or be destroyed” (Lee, Wemyss, Elzas, etc.), some deriving the form from רוע, “to fare ill,” others from ירע in the same sense (Mercier, Carey), others from רעע, either Kal (Fürst) or Niph. (Dathe, Lee). The context favors the root רעה.—E.]
Job_20:27. The heavens reveal his iniquity (יֲגלּוּ also properly Jussive like the verbs in Job_20:26; Job_20:28), and the earth riseth up against him (מִתְקוֹמָמָה pausal form for מִתְקוֹמְמָה). Thus the two chief divisions of the creation, which Job had previously (Job_16:18 seq.) summoned as witnesses in behalf of his innocence, must rather testify the opposite, must thrust him out from themselves as one condemned by God, so that there remains for him as his abode only the gloomy Sheol, the third division of the creation besides heaven and earth; comp. Job_11:8-9; Psa_135:6; Sir_24:7-9.
Job_20:28. The increase of his house must depart, flowing forth (lit. “things that flow, or run away,” diffluentia, in apposition to יְבוּל) in the day of His wrath, viz. the divine wrath. Ges., Olsh. [Gr., § 140, 2], etc., explain נִגָּרוֹת as Part. Niph. from גרר with an Aram. formation, defining it to mean opes corrasæ, things which have been scraped or gathered together; but less satisfactorily, for the clause בְּיוֹם אַפּו, at the end of this member of the verse, hardly permits us to look for a second subject, synonymous with יְבוּל. Moreover we must have found that thought expressed rather by נגרותיו = opes ab eo corrasae. As it would seem that after Job_20:27 a return to the wicked man’s possessions and treasures could not properly be looked for, some commentators have indulged in attempted emendations of the passage, all of which touch upon יגל in the first member (Jussive Kal from גלה, “to depart, to wander forth, comp. Pro_27:25). Thus Dathe, Stickel, etc., read יָגֹל—“the flood rolls away his house, etc.:” Ewald, יִגַּל—“the revenue of his house must roll itself away (like a torrent;” comp. Amo_5:27): Dillmann finally יִגָּל, Jussive Niphal of גלה—“the produce of his house must become apparent as that which flows away in the day of His wrath.”
Job_20:29. Closing verse, lying outside of the strophic arrangement, like Job_5:27, etc.—This is the portion of the wicked man from Elohim; the lot or “portion” (חֵלֶק, comp. Job_27:13; Job_31:2) assigned to him by Elohim, [אָדָם רָשָׁע, “a rare application of אָדָם, comp. Pro_6:12 instead of which אִישׁ is more usual,” Del.].—And the heritage appointed to him by God.—נַחֲלַת אִמְרוֹ, lit. “his heritage of the word,” i.e., his heritage as appointed to him by a word, by a command, a judicial sentence (אֹמֶר in this sense only here; but used similarly nevertheless in Psa_77:9; Heb_3:9. It is possible moreover to take the suffix in אִמְרוֹ as genitive of the object to אֹמֶר [or אֵמֶר], in which case the sense would be: “the heritage of the command concerning him.” In this case however the construction would be a much harsher one. [“חלק and נחלת taken in connection with the יבול of the preceding verse form a striking oxymoron: that his heritage be taken away from him, that is the heritage adjudged to him by God.” Schlottmann].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
This second discourse of Zophar’s, which is at the same time the last of the utterances directed by him against Job—for in the third act of the colloquy he does not speak—as respects the passionate obstinacy with which it urges the one ever repeated dogma and fundamental axiom of the friends is related to the second discourse of Eliphaz in chapter 15, as superlative to positive, and to the second discourse of Bildad, as superlative to comparative. In it the narrow-minded, legal, as well as unfriendly and unjust opposition of the friends to the misunderstood sufferer appears at its height, as was the case with the former discourse of Zophar in its relation to its two predecessors.—Neither does it present any new thoughts in opposition to Job, any more than the immediately preceding discourses of Eliphaz and Bildad. The terrible picture of the judgment of wrath upon the sinner, with the delineation of which, true to the pattern presented by those two discourses, it is principally, and indeed almost exclusively occupied, exhibits scarcely anything that is materially new or original. Only as regards its formal execution does this picture of horror surpass its two predecessors. It excels in its adroit presentation, and in its skilful, and to some extent original treatment of the familiar figures and phraseology of the Chokmah. This descriptive power, which in the effects produced by it proves itself to be not inconsiderable, seems indeed to be wholly subservient to the speaker’s spirit and purpose, which are characterized by hateful suspicion and vehement accusation. This materially weakens the impression which it is calculated to produce. “It is not possible to illustrate the principle that the covetous, unmerciful rich man is torn away from his prosperity by the punishment God decrees for him, more fearfully and more graphically than Zophar does it; and this terrible description is not overdrawn, but true and appropriate—but in opposition to Job it is the extreme of uncharitable-ness which outdoes itself: applied to him the fearful truth becomes a fearful lie. For in Zophar’s mind Job is the godless man, whose rejoicing does not last long, who indeed raises himself towards heaven, but as his own dung, (comp. on Job_20:7) must he perish, and to whom the sin of his unjust gain is become as the poison of the viper in his belly. The arrow of God’s wrath sticks fast in him; and though he draw it out, it has already inflicted on him a deservedly mortal wound! The fire of God which has already begun to consume his possessions, does not rest until even the last remnant in his tent is consumed. The heavens, when in his self-delusion he seeks the defender of his innocence, reveal his guilt, and the earth which he hopes to have as a witness in his favor, rises up as his accuser. Thus mercilessly does Zophar seek to stifle the new trust which Job conceives towards God, and to extinguish the faith which bursts upward from beneath the ashes of the conflict. His method is soul-destroying; he seeks to slay the life which germinates from the feeling of death, instead of strengthening it.” (Delitzsch). Comp. what Brentius says in his straightforward striking way: “Zophar to the end of the chapter puts forth the most correct opinions; but he is at fault in that he falsely distorts them against Job, just as though Job were afflicted for impiety, and asserted his innocence out of hypocrisy, and not out of the faith of the Gospel.”
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
As regards the homiletic treatment of this discourse, the same may be said in general as of the discourses, related as to their contents, in chapters 15 and 18. The description given of the perishableness of the prosperity of the ungodly, and of their just punishment at the last through the judgment of God, has its objective truth and value for the practical life; but the vehement tone of the representation, and the many unmistakable allusions to Job as the object of the speaker’s unfriendly suspicion, destroy the pure enjoyment of the discourse, and compel us to regard the picture, skilful as it is in itself, with critical caution.
Particular Passages
Job_20:8. Brentius: The state of the ungodly is compared to the most unsubstantial things, to wit, to a dream, and to visions of the night, which, while they are seen, seem to be something, but when the dreamer awakens, there is nothing remaining, as is set forth in Isaiah 29.
Job_20:10. Idem: From this verse we learn whence the poverty, and whence the wealth of children proceeds, viz., from the piety of parents (Psa_37:25).—Weimar Bible: The reason why many children suffer great misfortune, and especially poverty, lies often in their own sin, but it also proceeds oftentimes from the wickedness of their parents (Exo_20:5). He therefore who would see his children prosperous, let him beware of sin.
Job_20:12 seq. Starke: Sinful pleasure is commonly transformed into pain. When sin is first tasted it is sweet like sugar, but afterwards it bites like an adder (Pro_20:17; Pro_23:32; Sir_21:2 seq.).
Job_20:20 seq. Brentius: As water can never satisfy the dropsical, but the more it is drank, the more it is thirsted for; so riches never satisfy the mind’s lust, for the human mind can be satisfied with no good, save God (Ecc_1:8). Hence it comes to pass by God’s righteous decree, that as the avaricious man is discontented with what he has, as well as what he has not, so the ungodly man never has enough, however much property he may possess, because he is without God, in whom all good things are stored. You have an example of this in Alexander the Great, who, not content with the sovereignty of one world, groaned on learning that there were more worlds.
Job_20:27. Idem: Creatures, when they see the impieties and crimes of the ungodly, are silent until God pronounces judgment; but when His judgment is revealed, then all creatures betray the crimes which the ungodly have committed in their presence. In Christ however the sins of all the godly are covered, nay, are absorbed.—Wohlfarth: Nature is leagued against sin! It is an incontrovertible truth which we find here, written thousands of years ago—he who departs from God’s ways contends against heaven and earth, which from the beginning of the ages have been arrayed against sin, as a revolt against God’s sacred ordinances.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 check of my reproach--that is, the castigation intended as…
check of my reproach--that is, the castigation intended as a reproach (literally, "shame") to me.
spirit of . . . understanding--my rational spirit; answering to "calm thoughts" (Job 20:2). In spite of thy reproach urging me to "hastiness." I will answer in calm reason.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 1. The strange composure of Job, his consciousness of…
ZOPHAR’S SECOND REPLY.
1. The strange composure of Job, his consciousness of innocency, and his faith in God, instead of winning the sympathy, have served only to cut to the quick the heart of his antagonist. None are more disposed to deal in denunciation than they who have been wounded in vanity by being worsted in argument. Exasperated by Job’s allusion, in his closing exhortation, to the sword and the judgment, Zophar wields the terrors of the law, and conceives that he is doing God service by such maintenance of His truth. In the vivid and masterly portraiture of the wicked rich man Zophar evidently has his eye on Job, and in describing the doom of wealth gotten by fraud and rapine, he more than insinuates, that this is the secret of Job’s trouble. Complete destruction has come upon him because there was no limit to his greed. Job’s fervent appeal to a future life, with all its resources of hope and deliverance, is offset by the fate of the godless wretch who, hurled from the summit of worldly prosperity, is consumed by a fire unkindled by human breath. The moral of Zophar’s address is, that Job, instead of talking piously, would much better give himself to repentance.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 2, 3. Zophar is roused to indignation by Job’s…
2, 3. Zophar is roused to indignation by Job’s perverse blindness to unalterable principles experienced since the world was. The verses should perhaps read,
2. Therefore do my thoughts make answer to me,
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And because of this have I haste within me:
3. I hear the rebuke that putteth me to shame—
But the spirit out of my understanding answereth me.
The words “therefore” and “because of this” refer to the first clause of Job_20:3.—I hear the rebuke that puts me to shame (i. e. Job’s last words), therefore do my thoughts make answer to me, and because of this have I inward haste, i. e. strong feeling. The speaker means that he feels driven to answer Job by the exasperating words of the latter, but he distinguishes between himself and his thoughts and speaks of them answering him. So (Job_20:3) his “spirit” answers him, drawing the answer out of his “understanding.” The answer furnished to Zophar by his spirit follows Job_20:4 seq. The last words of Job_20:2 are lit. “is my haste within me;” cf. their cord in them, Job_4:21, my help within me, Job_6:13. The word “check” in A. V. Job_20:3 means reproof;
“Now, by my life,
Old fools are babes again; and must be used
With checks, as flatteries.” Lear, 1. 3.
“Check’d like a bondman; all his faults observed.”
J. Caesar, IV. 3.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27 (1) Then answered Zophar.—Zophar retorts with yet greater vehemence…
XX.
(1) Then answered Zophar.—Zophar retorts with yet greater vehemence than before, and assumes a more ornate and elaborate style, still reiterating the former burden of the speedy doom of the wicked man.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 Vers. 1-29. Zophar"s second speech is even more harsh…
Vers. 1-29. Zophar"s second speech is even more harsh than his first (ch. 11). He adds coarseness and rudeness to his former vehement hostility (vers. 7, 15). His whole discourse is a covert denunciation of Job as a wicked man and a hypocrite (vers. 5, 12, 19, 29), deservedly punished by God for a life of crime. He ends by prophesying Job"s violent death, the destruction of his house, and the rising up of heaven and earth in witness against him (vers. 24-28).
Vers. 1, 2. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer. Zophar "has heard the check of his reproach" (ver. 3), i.e. the reproach contained in the last words of Job in the preceding chapter. Therefore his thoughts rise up within him, and cause him to make a reply. He cannot allow Job to shift the onus of guilt and the menace of punishment on his friends, when it is he, Job, that is the guilty person, over whom the judgments of God impend. And for this I make haste; rather, and because of my haste that is within me (see the Revised Version); i.e. "because I am of a hasty and impetuous temperament.
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Vers. 1-29. Zophar to Job: an orthodox champion to the rescue.
I AN IMPETUOUS ORATOR PERTURBED. Threatened with Divine vengeance, Zophar advances to the combat in hopes of utterly confounding his antagonist. His appearance, manner, and address are characterized by:
1. Bold defiance. "Therefore," i.e. in view of what you have just spoken; nay, "nevertheless," i.e. in spite of all your grandiloquent talk about a sword. Zophar had been unmoved, equally by Job"s pathetic wail depicting his abandonment by God and man, and by Job"s sublime utterance respecting his Divine-human Goel. Job"s prayer for a drop of human pity had made no impression on his flinty bosom. Job"s suggestion that the law of retribution they so vehemently preached might one day receive unexpected illustration in themselves (Job_19:29) had touched him to the quick. Accordingly, to hide the writhings of his lacerated spirit, he assumes an aspect of courage which he does not possess.
2. Extreme perturbation. The inward agitation of his spirit he betrays in his language. His cogitations were confused. His "thoughts" shot up in all directions from his heart like the manifold and intricate ramifications of a tree. (cf. Job_4:16) The word strikingly represents the mind"s activity under violent excitement. The soul of Zophar was perplexed. Job"s discourse had possessed the merit of enlisting the attention, if not the sympathy, of his hearer. It had moved the feelings, if it had not convinced the judgment. And Zophar, if he did not listen with a loving spirit, at least did not hearken with a vacant mind. Yet, considering the mental disturbance which Job"s speech had produced, Zophar would have acted prudently had he maintained a discreet silence. Troubled thoughts seldom fashion wise or weighty words; and, though vehement emotion, especially when under control, is of immense advantage to an orator, yet an intellect deranged by passion is divested of whatever power of conviction it might otherwise possess.
3. Indecent haste. Whether or not a pause usually intervened between the different speeches in this controversy, Zephyr would appear to have been exceptionally impatient to smite his adversary, and to have rushed into the arena of debate like a war-horse neighing for the battle. If the rush of feeling and the multitudinous array of ideas which Job"s words provoked did not "cause him to answer" (ver. 2), they at least furnished him with what seemed a crushing rejoinder to the outspoken insolence to which he had been compelled to listen a rejoinder made and ready, so that he required not to meditate, but simply to "follow the suggestions of his thoughts as fast as they arose" (Carey), which he did. It had been better infinitely that Zophar had exercised a little self-restraint better for his own credit, since "he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly", (Pro_14:29) since even good men are prone to err when they speak in haste, (Psa_116:11) since it is the part of a wise man to "refrain his lips", (Pro_10:19) and the commandment of God to "be not rash with one"s mouth", (Ecc_5:2) but to be "swift to hear, slow to speak", (Jam_1:19) and since "there is more hope of a fool than of him that is hasty in his words"; (Pro_29:20) and it would have been better for Job"s comfort, since hasty words are seldom kindly words.
4. Virtuous resentment. Zophar, "the very pink and pattern of orthodoxy" (Cox), had been threatened with the sword. He had perfectly understood what Job meant by brandishing (metaphorically, of course) that lethal weapon before his eyes. It was designed as a "check of his reproach" (ver. 3), a reprimand to overwhelm him with disgrace, which he, Zophar, now hurled back upon the speaker with indignant scorn. The wounding of Zophar"s self-esteem had been a more serious offence on Job"s part than the striking at his faith. Zophar "one of those hot-heads who pretend to fight for religion that is imperilled, while in reality" they are "only zealous for their own wounded vanity" (Delitzsch). Instead of answering Job"s arguments, which doubtless he could not, he wipes out, or imagines he wipers out, the gratuitous dishonour done to his reputation as an orthodox believer by vehement reassertion of the current faith. It is usual for those who cannot reply to an opponent"s objections to indulge in personal invectives and extravagant assertions.
5. Wonderful conceit. Zophar practically informs Job that if he (Zophar) does not confound him (Job) and his heretical doctrines, it is not for want of ability to do so. "The spirit of his understanding," i.e. the inner light of his intellectual discernment, the spirit emanating from the keen faculty of perception which he knows to be within him, furnishes him with all the information requisite for such a purpose. Now, doubtless, "there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding"; (Job_32:8) but "this also is a vanity" which may be witnessed beneath the sun, that they who have the least of such understanding not unfrequently suppose themselves to have the most, while they who have the most are the least inclined to praise themselves on its account.
II THE ORTHODOX FAITH REASSERTED.
1. With sarcastic surprise. Zophar professes astonishment that Job required to be instructed on so obvious a point as the Divine law of retribution, considering
(1) what a wise man Job was: "Knowest thou not this?" thou who knowest everything an obvious allusion to Job_19:25; and
(2) what an old law it was, having been "of old, since man was placed upon the earth." and therefore surely not beyond the cognizance of a man who could look to the world"s end. Zophar"s irony was clever, but not kind.
2. With evident relish. With ill-concealed gusto Zophar repeats the popular dogma of the day, that "the triumphing of the wicked is near literally, "is from near, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment," adding that "though his excellency," or exaltation, "mount up into heaven, yet shall he perish for over;" words suggestive of
(1) the superficial character of the irreligious man"s happiness, which is commonly derived from things at hand, the creature-comforts by which he is surrounded;
(2) the short-lived duration of the wicked man"s hope, which is only "from near," i.e. of recent origin, and continues but a little space, being doomed to perish at the close of life"s brief day at the furthest;
(3) the seeming elevation of the hypocrite"s piety, which often appears to wear an extraordinary aspect of sanctity, setting its head among the clouds, while common saints have much ado to walk upon the earth without stumbling; (Isa_65:5 Mat_23:14 Luk_18:11)
(4) the absolute certainty of the ungodly man"s overthrow, since he shall yet be cast down from the loftiest position of security to the lowest depths of degradation; (Isa_14:13-15 Amo_9:2 Oba_1:4)
(5) the terrible completeness of the sinner"s destruction he shall perish, and that for ever. Had Zophar been a man of tender spirit, instead of a fierce and fiery bigot, he would not have exulted with such fiendish delight in a doom so appalling even in imagination.
3. With varied illustration.
(1) A coarse metaphor. The wicked man shall perish "like his own dung," i.e. with abhorrence and contempt (1Ki_14:10 2Ki_9:37 Psa_83:10 Jer_8:2) a sentiment which, although not conveyed in polite language, is sometimes verified in this world in the case of notorious transgressors, and in the next world will certainly prove true of all the ungodly.
(2) An impressive image. The prosperous wicked man is likened to an unsubstantial dream, which, with its magical phantasmagoria, highly excites the fancy of the sleeper, but which vanishes, when night is passed, into the limbo of oblivion. What Zophar here affirms of the individual is true of men generally. The sinful life is a tremendous unreality; it may often assume imposing shapes, fascinating to beholders; but, after all, is only a pretentious shadow, which will disappear when, at the dawning of eternal day, the good man awakes. The pious life alone has solidity and continuance.
(3) A borrowed text. Zophar plagiarizes a sentiment (ver. 9) from a previous address of Job. (Job_7:8, Job_7:10) When preachers appropriate the thoughts of others, they should carefully acknowledge to whom they are indebted for their wisdom or eloquence.
(4) A solemn reflection. That when a wicked man dies he commonly bequeaths a legacy of shame to his descendants, his children being obliged "to please the poor" (ver. 10), i.e. to court the favour of the destitute whom his rapacity has impoverished, and, in his name, so that it might actually be held to be by his hands, to "restore the goods" of those whom his covetousness and oppression have red-faced to beggary. Nothing is more certain than that a father"s ungodliness is often visited upon his family (Eze_18:2) an argument for parental piety; that the whirligig of time brings strange revenges upon sinners, punishing them by the very inflictions they entailed on others, e.g. reducing their children to beggary as they had reduced the children of others (1Sa_15:33) a proof of God"s overruling providence; that ill-gotten gain seldom proves a blessing to its possessors, mostly bringing misery into a man"s house instead of felicity (Gen_13:11) a caution against covetousness; and that God frequently compels the restitution of wealth unjustly acquired, sometimes by the power of grace, (Luk_19:8) sometimes by the anguish of remorse, (Mat_27:3-5) sometimes by the hand of death, (Psa_39:6) sometimes by the superior craft of others (Gen_30:37) a reason for honest dealing.
(5) A cruel innuendo. That Job had been wicked in his youth, that Job"s bones were even then full of the secret lusts of his early manhood, that at least his physical disease was the direct retribution of his previous excesses, and that these, his unrepented crimes, were about to descend with him to his grave (ver. 11). Though not applicable to Job, at whom all commentators are agreed it is pointed, (cf. Job_13:26 Job_17:15, Job_17:16) the language conveys a solemn warning as to youthful indulgence in sin,
(a) its proneness to progress and develop into a licentious and profligate old age;
(b) its tendency to avenge itself in time in a diseased body, an enfeebled mind, a premature death; and
(c) its certainty, unless repented of, abandoned, and forgiven, to lie down with the transgressor in his grave, ay, to accompany him beyond the grave into the unseen world of eternity.
III AN APPROVED DOCTRINE ENFORCED.
1. The picture of a sinful epicure. (Vers 12-18)
(1) The wicked man"s estimate of sin. He regards it as a dainty which communicates to his soul the same gratification that delicious viands do to tide palate. A melancholy proof of the degradation into which man has sunk, that that which God pronounces an abomination he should contemplate with approbation; that a nature which God formed to find its happiness in holy fellowship with himself should experience pleasure in disobedience. Yet to the carnal mind all sin possesses more or less a relish, while some forms of indulgence, such as intemperance in eating and drinking, inordinate ambition and avarice, devotion to the frivolous, and often wicked, amusements of fashionable life, are attended with at least a seeming satisfaction.
(2) The wicked man"s delight in sin. He deals with it as an epicure does with a dainty keeping hold of it as long as he is able, seeking to extract from it as much sweetness as possible, "hiding it under his tongue, sparing it and forsaking it not, but keeping it still in the middle of his palate" (vers. 12, 13); as a glutton does with delicious food, eagerly devouring it, gulping it down with avidity, swallowing it with greediness (ver. 15), gormandizing and stuffing himself with the tasty viands with the voracity of a beast a description applicable to the drunkard, (Pro_23:20, Pro_23:21) the debauchee, (Pro_7:22) the covetous man. (Isa_5:8 Isa_56:11)
(3) The wicked man"s recompense from sin. He shall be filled with misery by that in which he formerly delighted, as if the pleasant food of which he had partaken had been changed in his stomach into the gall of asps (ver. 14). "Though wicked men relish sin at the time, roll it as a sweet plum in the mouth, and feel its deliciousness, the issue will be agony; it will turn into wormwood, it will rankle as a hellish virus in every vein of the soul" (Thomas). He shall be taken with a loathing for that which he formerly desired, viz. riches, which shall compel him to disgorge that which he gulped down with greediness (ver. 15); nay, what he toiled so hard to obtain he shall not be permitted to retain, but shall be obliged to restore without having experienced from it any real enjoyment (ver. 18). Though conveying a cruel and malicious insinuation that Job"s wealth had been unjustly acquired which it was not yet the sentiment is often true, especially of riches, that that which men pursue with avidity and accumulate with eager anticipations of delight, seldom realizes the expectations it excites, often fills its possessors with disgust, and must eventually be given up, if not before, at least at death. (Ecc_6:2; cf. "Measure for Measure," act 3. sc. 1) He shall be slain by the very thing which he supposed should be his life, the sweet morsel of sin which he sucked turning out to be the poison of asps, and as the deadly bite of a viper. So sin ever carries retribution in its own bosom. The fair fruit which was expected to make Adam and Eve wise as gods left them overwhelmed with guilty shame; (Gen_3:7) Samson"s amorous dalliance with Delilah conducted him to Gaza"s prison; (Jud_1:16:21) David"s sin with Bathsheba proved like molten fire within his veins; (Psa_32:4 Psa_51:8) the wine-cup of the drunkard at last bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. (Pro_23:32) He shall be excluded from any real happiness on earth. "He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter" (ver. 17). Much more, it may be added, he shall not attain to the felicity of the future Paradise of God. "The river of life, the wine of the kingdom, the fruits of Paradise, the joys at God"s right hand, the pleasures for evermore," are "all forfeited for the momentary pleasures of sin" (Robinson).
2. The picture of a powerful tyrant. (Vers. 19-28) The portrait intended for Job.
(1) The crimes laid to his charge are:
(a) Merciless oppression, in the threefold form of grinding down, forsaking, and robbing the poor; (cf. Job_22:6, Job_22:7) conduct common in the era of the Preacher (Ecc_3:16) and in the days of primitive Christianity, (Jam_2:6) though by no means infrequent in these times; conduct offensive in the sight of God and man, (Ecc_6:8 Ecc_7:7) and wholly unbecoming in a good, (Isa_33:15) but specially characteristic of a bad, (Psa_55:3) man; conduct attaining its highest degree of wickedness when the poor oppress the poor, (Pro_28:3) and certain to be fiercely avenged (Psa_35:10 Pro_22:16 Isa_3:15 Jer_22:16) by him who espouses the cause of the oppressed.
(b) Insatiable greed, being represented as one who felt no quietness in his belly, i.e. whose cravings knew no bounds (ver. 20), and from whose covetousness nothing escaped (ver. 21) a sin against which men are warned in the Decalogue, (Exo_20:17) and saints in the gospel, (Luk_12:15) and upon which woes are pronounced by the prophets, (Isa_5:8 Jer_51:13 Mic_2:9 Hab_2:6) and judgments by the apostles. (Rom_1:29 1Co_5:11 Eph_5:3, 5 Heb_13:5 Jam_5:1-3 2Pe_2:3)
(2) The doom predicted as his portion is exhibited as:
(a) Deceiving prosperity. He shall not be able to escape with that to which his soul clings as its dearest treasure (ver. 20). Calamity shall overtake his accumulated spoil in spite of his most watchful care. His prosperity shall not continue (ver. 21), but "in the fulness of his sufficiency" when rejoicing in abundance, "he shall be in straits" (ver. 22), either dreading impending destitution, or being deprived of his property, as Job was, by the stroke of swift calamity. As no man"s riches can save him from peril, (Psa_49:7) so neither can any man save his riches when God commands them to take wings and flee away. (Pro_23:5) God can take a sinner from his wealth (Luk_12:20) as easily as a sinner"s wealth from him, (Gen_19:29) or, permitting the wealth to remain, he can cause its possessor to feel in straits.
(b) Thickening adversity. "Every hand of the wicked literally, "every hand of the wretched," i.e. every stroke that falls upon the wretched shall come upon him." He shall be assailed by every form of trouble; as e.g. Divine wrath in the midst of his enjoyment (ver. 23) God, in order to fill his belly, raining down upon him the fiery glow of his indignation as he did upon the cities of the plain, (Gen_19:24) upon the Israelites in the wilderness, (Num_11:33 Psa_78:30, Psa_78:31) and, according to Zophar, upon Job. (Job_1:16) Sudden destruction in the midst of his oppressions (vers. 24, 25). Fleeing from an adversary, he is pierced in the back by an arrow from a bow of steel. Drawing the gleaming weapon from his body, the metal head of the arrow from his gall, terrors of approaching death or of a fearful conscience encompass him. So God sometimes causes the sinner to be struck down in the very act of his wickedness, (Num_16:31 2Sa_8:5 2Ki_1:9, 10 Act_5:5) and so are bold transgressors commonly transformed into cowards when death comes and conscience wakes. Complete annihilation of himself and his treasures (ver. 26). Though concealed in the earth, these treasures will yet be laid bare by fire from heaven, which shall also burn up him and them (as the fire of God had already, literally, burnt up Job"s sheep and oxen, and was on the eve, metaphorically, of devouring himself), consigning both to a gloom darker than that which enshrouds the freebooter"s spoil a doom reserved for the finally impenitent. Certain exposure of his wicked character and life (ver. 27), not only heaven renouncing and abhorring the transgressor, but the earth also conspiring to ensure his detection. As certainly as God and the universe are on the side of saints, (Rom_8:28) so certainly are they arrayed against the sinner. It was, perhaps, only poetry when Deborah and Barak sang that the heavenly powers fought for Israel, and the stars in their courses contended against Sisera; (Jud_1:5:20) it was superstition which made the Melitans imagine Paul to be a wicked wretch whom Divine vengeance suffered not to live; (Act_28:4) it is plain prose and solemn truth when God says that heaven and earth are in league against the sinner. Final extinction for his house and its belongings in the day of wrath (ver. 28), as appeared to be the case with Job, though it was not, and as will eventually be the case with the wicked, though they think not.
IV A POWERFUL SERMON APPLIED.
1. The elements of truth in this conclusion. These are:
(1) That the wicked man has a portion or heritage, which he shall assuredly receive as the righteous reward of his ungodly life. Equally with the saint will the sinner be recompensed according to his works.
(2) That this portion or heritage is decreed for the wicked man by God. As God appoints to all men their earthly lots, so does he determine the lots of all in the life beyond.
(3) That this portion or heritage shall be bestowed upon him by the hand of God, so that his evading or eluding it will be wholly impossible.
2. The ingredients of error in this Conclusion.
(1) The wicked man"s portion is not always bestowed upon him on earth: the first mistake of Zophar.
(2) Even if bestowed on earth, it is not universally a heritage like that described above: Zophar"s second blunder.
(3) If, again, it was exactly as portrayed, it did not apply to Job: the third mistake of Zophar, and the worst of the three.
Learn:
1. That controversy, especially in religion (and politics), is seldom profitable, and almost always irritating.
2. That controversialists are commonly characterized more by exaggerated language than by convincing argumentation.
3. That no cause is advanced by either vulgarity of speech or personality of allusion.
4. That it is not uncommon for s careless reasoner to mistake a half-truth for a whole, an exceptional truth for a universal, an occasional truth for s perpetual.
5. That it is impossible for a wicked man to escape retribution, if not in this world, at least in the next.
6. That unpardoned sins are the worst grave that any man can lay his bones in.
7. That though sin may be attended with pleasure, it can never result in happiness.
8. That what prevents ultimate success to a sinner is the fact that God is against him.
9. That God knows when and how to strike his avenging blows so as to cause them to gall hardest on the object of his displeasure.
10. That the greatest calamity which can overtake a human soul is the wrath of God.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-29. Godless prosperity short-lived.
Here we have a new variation on the favourite theme of the friends the inconstancy of godless prosperity. "The jubilation of the wicked is but of short duration, and the joy of the profligate but a moment." The wicked man is specially here described as a rich man, who greedily snatches at others" property, and whose ill-gotten gains become a deadly consuming fire to him and all his. It is related to Eliphaz"s speech (Job 15) as the superlative to the positive, and to Bildad"s (Job 18) as the superlative to the comparative. Similar remarks to those, then, must here apply; and the description is in itself true, apt, and striking, but its evident animus against Job is fiercely unjust.
I CENSURE OF JOB: INTRODUCTION OF THE THEME. (Vers. 1-5) "Therefore my thoughts reply to me, and hence comes the storm of my bosom. Must I hear correction that insults me? But my spirit out of my understanding gives me an answer namely, of warning and chastisement to Job as a godless man (vers. 1-3). Zophar then gives these suggestions of his spirit in the form of a question directed to Job: "Knowest thou this from eternity, since man was placed on the earth, that the triumph of the wicked endures but a short time, and the joy of the reprobate but a moment?" He is astonished that Job, as appears from his speeches, is unacquainted with this well-worn and familiar truth of experience (vers. 4, 5).
II DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEME. (Vers. 6-29)
1. "Though his glory mounts, to heaven, and his head reaches to the clouds, (comp. Isa_14:13, 14 Oba_1:4) like his dung he perishes for ever; they that saw him say, Where is he?" The coarsest and most contemptuous comparison seems to be purposely selected (ver. 7). The next is that of the fugitive dream. (ver. 8; comp. Isa_29:7 Psa_73:20 Psa_90:5) Dreams and visions of the night! emptiest things! appearing to be something while they last, but leaving no trace behind when the sleeper wakes. The eye that has seen him shall see him no more; and the place where he seemed to move, a solid person of flesh and blood, beholds that figure no longer (ver. 9). The curse descends to his children; they are reduced to court the favour of humble folk, and they have to give up to their father"s creditors his ill-gotten wealth (ver. 10). How often, though not without exception, do we see this to be the rule of life the beggary or the wealth of children is rooted in the wickedness or goodness of the parents! (Exo_20:5 Psa_37:25) Let him who would see his children happy beware of sin. "His bones were full of youthful strength, and with him it lies in the bed of dust" (ver. 11).
2. The inconstant prosperity of the wicked under the figure of sweet food, but deadly poison. (Vers. 12-16) "Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth, he hides it under his tongue," rolling it as a delicious morsel, he sparingly fosters it, and lets it not go, and keeps it back on his palate" (in five synonymous phrases the idea of the dwelling and gloating over the sweet morsel of sin is set forth, vers. 12, 13); "yet his food is changed in his bowels vipers" poison is in his interior (ver. 14). The riches he has swallowed God expels from his paunch. The drastic language betrays the energy and violence of Zophar"s feelings (ver. 15). Then, recurring to the figure of ver. 14, "the tongue of adders slays him", (Psa_140:3) the deadly bite replacing in the description the deadly draught. (ver. 16; Pro_23:32) So God turns men"s "pleasant vices" into whips and scourges for their backs ("King Lear"). The sweet Dead Sea fruits that tempt the taste turn to ashes on the lips. Sinful pleasure turns to pain, It begins with sweetness, like sugar, but afterwards bites like a serpent. (Pro_20:17 RAPC Sir 21:2, et seq.)
1. (Vers. 17-22) "He may not see his pleasure in brooks, streams, floodsof honey and cream" (ver. 17). These are well-known biblical figures for luxury and fulness of prosperity. (Exo_3:8, Exo_3:17) And where the classic poets describe the golden age these figures occur: "streams of milk, streams of nectar flowed" (Ovid, "Metam.," 1:111, sqq.; Theocr., "Id.," 5:124, sqq.; Virg., "Eel.," 4:30; Her., "Epod.," 16:47). "He gives back what he has gained, and enjoys it not; accord ing to the property of his barter he is not merry;" that is, in proportion as he employed unjust means of exchange, to obtain temporal goods and enjoyment, he does not rejoice in them, he must go without the mirth that he promised himself from them (ver. 18). "For he crushed, and caused the lowly to he down." With what tender regard does biblical morality and law treat the poor and defenceless! what indignation does it testify against the oppressor! "He snatched houses for himself, and built them not." The meaning perhaps is, he built them not anew, did not succeed in rebuilding them according to his taste, because he could not possess them for a permanence (ver. 19). "For he knew no rest in his belly." "The way of peace" (Isa_59:8) is not for restless greed and selfish hardness to others" sufferings to tread. "Therefore he will not escape with that which is dearest to him" (ver. 20). "Nothing escaped his greed, therefore his possessions shall not continue" (ver. 21). "In the fulness of his super fluity he comes into straits; every hand of the wretched comes upon him" (ver. 22). The clamours of those whom he has wronged, the cries of the widows, the orphans, the poor, make a din in the ears of the bad man; their hands stretch forth to seize the goods of which he has defrauded them. It is a striking picture of retribution. Perhalps the most salient point in this description is that of the insatiableness of greed. "The dire dropsy increases by self-indulgence, nor expels the thirst, unless the cause of disease flees from the veins, and the watery languor from the pale body," says Horace, in a noble ode on the use and abuse of riches. "You shall more widely rule," he says, "by taming the greedy spirit, than could you join Libya to far-off Gades" (Od." 2:2). Riches cannot satisfy the soul, nor any earthly good, but only God. (Ecc_1:8) The covetous temper finds as much want in what it has as in what it has not. No possessions, however great, can satisfy, us, until we have found the treasury of all good things in God. We are still little Alexanders, not content to rule over one world grieved to hear there are no more (Brenz).
2. End of the wicked man in accordance with the Divine judgment. (Vers. 28-28) "That it may serve for the filling of his belly, he causes his fiery wrath to fall upon him". (comp. Job_18:15) Sin the figure of filling the belly, cf. ver. 20; Luk_15:16.) "And causes to rain upon him with his food;" that is, his food, the wages of his sin, is the just punishment from God (ver. 23). The description goes on to point out the means by which the wrathful judgment of Heaven is executed (ver. 24, sqq.).
(1) Warlike examples: pursuit and wounds. "He flees from the iron harness, the brazen bow pierces him". (Jud_1:5:26) He draws the arrow from his body, (Jud_1:3:22) and the shining steel comes out of his gall; the terrors of death come upon him (ver. 25). Then
(2) some further descriptions of the Divine judgment, especially with reference to the property of the wicked. "All darkness is reserved for his treasures." His hoards are exposed to every casualty. He finds that he has been "treasuring up for himself wrath!". (Rom_2:5) A fire that no human hands have kindled devours him, destroying the relies of former judgments (ver. 26). "The heavens disclose his guilt, and earth rises against him" (ver. 27). A striking contrast to Job_16:18, Job_16:19, where Job had appealed to heaven and earth as witnesses of his innocence. Thus denied and cast from both, the only place for the wicked is in Sheol, or Hades. The produce of his house must pass away, like wrecks floating down a flood, in the day of God"s wrath (ver. 28).
CONCLUSION. "Such is the lot of the wicked man from God, and the heritage allotted to him by God" (ver. 29). The witness of nature against the sinner this is the most powerful concluding thought in this awe-striking address. Nature seems to be unconscious of men"s guilt, as of their virtues. The leaves of the forest do not shudder, the bright blue sky is not overcast, the earth does not quake when deeds of crime are done. Yet that majestic order represented by heaven and earth the order which finds its reflection in the conscience of man cannot be violated with impunity. It will avenge itself in the end. And we see from time to time striking types and prophecies of this in the way by which crime is detected from the traces left on the face of nature, or by the clues afforded by natural law. The light of day reveals the deed of the night-time, and the earth gives up her dead. If all sins thus leave some record, what rest or peace could there be for the guilty conscience except in the gospel, which assures us that in Christ the sins of the penitent and believing are "covered," and that his blood cleanseth from all sin? J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv4, 8, 11, 12, 19 That the triumphing of the wicked is short.
Job_20:4-5
That the triumphing of the wicked is short.
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The triumph of the wicked
The words of the text are indisputably true, though misapplied. In the world there is, alas! very often a triumphing of the wicked. Sometimes We see it on a grand scale, as in the cases of Pharaoh, or of Nero. Sometimes we see it on a small scale. There is great mystery in this apparent triumph of evil. Many a suffering saint has been perplexed by this feature of the Divine government (Psa_23:1-6).
I. Some thoughts as to why the wicked should be allowed to triumph for a season.
1. God is a God of patience and long-suffering. He does not cut short the day of grace, even of the most ungodly, but gives them space for repentance. And even if this is of no avail, yet it is a display of His own attributes, and leaves the impenitent more completely without excuse.
2. This triumph may be permitted for a time, as a chastisement to His people, or to His world. God uses the wicked as unconscious instruments in executing His will, and especially in inflicting chastisement on His backsliding people.
II. There is another, and how different a triumph, the triumph of the Christian. His triumph is not over the weak and suffering, but over the strong--the world, the flesh, the devil. (George Wagner.)
The triumphing of the wicked short
I. The triumph mentioned. The term used by Zophar is of very general meaning. It signifies the joy which is displayed by the conqueror on account of the successes which have attended him. It is to be understood as referring to the boast which ungodly men often make of their achievements. The term applies to the general conduct of all those who set Gods laws at defiance, and by their life show who take pleasure in the ways of sin. The enjoyment of transgression is the triumph of ungodliness.
II. The shortness of the triumphs of man.
1. In regard to the object itself. It is a conquest which circumstances put into their hands. But see how unstable is war.
2. The expression is also true as it regards the term of human life. The period allotted to man, even the longest period, is only a small portion of time. Death will soon overtake the ungodly, and put a final termination to all his plans and purposes; he will hurry the soul before the Judge of quick and dead, to give account of the deeds done in the body. Then will appear the value of the one thing needful. This subject teaches the people of God not to despond, not to judge or conclude that the wicked are happy, because they seem to prosper and triumph. It teaches the believer the obligations under which he lies to God for grace--grace which has enlightened his mind--grace which has led him to Christ, to believe in Him, and find mercy and peace--grace which has guided his steps, and enabled him to bear patiently all the ills of life, in the hope of a triumph forever. (F. Rogers Blackley.)
And the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.
Against hypocrisy
Prejudice or passion will miserably warp the judgment. It will hide from us what we know not, and cause us to pervert what we do know. This is exemplified in the friends of Job. Job had hinted to them the evil and danger of their conduct (Job_19:28-29). And Zophar, irritated at the caution, replies with great severity. His words, however, though misapplied, suggest to us two very important truths respecting sinners.
I. Their prosperity is transient. Of sinners, some make no profession of religion, and others a false profession. Each of these characters may enjoy, for a while, great prosperity the profane are often exalted to places of dignity and power. They prosper in all their labours for wealth and preferment. They triumph, as though no evil should ever happen unto them (Psa_73:3-12). Hypocrites also frequently are held in estimation (Rev_3:1). They are objects of envy to many an humble and contrite soul. They will boast of experiences which might well be coveted. And even attain considerable heights of joy (Mat_13:20). But their prosperity will be of short duration. The hypocrite shall have a period put to his dissimulation. He shall soon appear in his proper character (Deu_32:35). In comparison of eternity, the duration of his joy will be but a moment.
II. their ruin will be tremendous. The ungodly will in due time be visited for their offences. They will then perish.
1. To their own eternal shame.
2. To the astonishment of all that knew them. The question Where is he? refers primarily to the utter extinction of the ungodly. Address--Know you not this? Know you not that this has been so from the beginning of the world? Does not the Word of God assert that it shall be ill with the wicked? (Isa_3:11; Psa_9:17.) Does not the most authentic history in the world prove it to have been so? (Sketches of Sermons.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Job 20
XVII.
IGNORANT CRITICISM OF LIFE
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Job 20
ZOPHAR SPEAKS
THE great saying that quickens our faith and carries thought into a higher world conveyed no Divine meaning to the man from Naamah. The author must have intended to pour scorn on the hide bound intelligence and rude bigotry of Zophar, to show him dwarfed by self-content and zeal not according to knowledge. When Job affirmed his sublime confidence in a Divine Vindicator, Zophar caught only at the idea of an avenger. What is this notion of a Goel on whose support a condemned man dares to count, who shall do judgment for him? And his resentment was increased by the closing words of Job:-
"If ye say, How may we pursue him?
And that the cause of the matter is in me-
Then beware of the sword!
For hot are the punishments of the sword.
That ye may know there is judgment."
If they went on declaring that the root of the matter, that is, the real cause of his affliction, was to be found in his own bad life, let them beware the avenging sword of Divine justice. He certainly implies that his Goel may become their enemy if they continue to persecute him with false charges. To Zophar the suggestion is intolerable. With no little irritation and anger he begins:-
"For this do my thoughts answer me,
And by reason of this there is haste in me-
I hear the reproof which puts me to shame,
And the spirit of my understanding gives me answer."
He speaks more hotly than in his first address, because his pride is touched, and that prevents him from distinguishing between a warning and a personal threat. To a Zophar every man is blind who does not see as he sees, and every word offensive that bids him take pause. Believers of his kind have always liked to appropriate the defence of truth, and they have seldom done anything but harm. Conceive the dulness and obstinacy of one who heard an inspired utterance altogether new to human thought, and straightway turned in resentment on the man from whom it came. He is an example of the bigot in the presence of genius, a little uncomfortable, a good deal affronted, very sure that he knows the mind of God, and very determined to have the last word. Such were the Scribes and Pharisees of our Lords time, most religious persons and zealous for what they considered sound doctrine. His light shone in darkness, and their darkness comprehended it not; they did Him to death with an accusation of impiety and blasphemy-"He made Himself the Son of God," they said.
Zophars whole speech is a fresh example of the dogmatic hardness the writer was assailing, the closure of the mind and the stiffening of thought. One might not unjustly accuse this speaker of neglecting the moral difference between the profane whose triumph and joy he declares to be short, and the good man whose career is full of years and honour. We may almost say that to him outward success is the only mark of inward grace, and that prosperous hypocrisy would be mistaken by him for the most beautiful piety. His whole creed about providence and retribution is such that he is on the way to utter confusion of mind. Why, he has said to himself that Job is a wicked and false man-Job whose striking characteristic is outspoken truthfulness, whose integrity is the pride of his Divine Master. And if Zophar once accepts it as indisputable that Job is neither good nor sincere, what will the end be for himself? With more and more assurance he will judge from a mans prosperity that he is righteous, and from his afflictions that he is a reprobate. He will twist and torture facts of life and modes of thought, till the worship of property will become his real cult, and to him the poor will of necessity seem worthless. This is just what happened in Israel. It is just what slovenly interpretation of the Bible and providence has brought many to in our own time. Side by side with a doctrine of self-sacrifice incredible and mischievous, there is a doctrine of the earthly reward of godliness-religion profitable for the life that now is, in the way of filling the pockets and conducting to eminent seats-an absurd and hurtful doctrine, forever being taught in one form if not another, and applied all along the line of human life. An honest, virtuous man, is he sure to find a good place in our society? The rich broker or manufacturer, because he washes, dresses, and has twenty servants to wait upon him, is he therefore a fine soul? Nobody will say so. Yet Christianity is so little understood in some quarters, is so much associated with the error of Zophar, that within the church a score are of his opinion for one who is in Jobs perplexity. Outside, the proportion is much the same. The moral ideas and philanthropies of our generation are perverted by the notion that no one is succeeding as a man unless he is making money and rising in the social scale. So, independence of mind, freedom, integrity, and the courage by which they are secured, are made of comparatively little account.
It will be said that if things were rightly ordered, Christian ideas prevailing in business, in legislation and social intercourse, the best people would certainly be in the highest places and have the best of life, and that, meanwhile, the improvement of the world depends on some approximation to this state of affairs. That is to say, spiritual power and character must come into visible union with the resources of the earth and possession of its good things, otherwise there will be no moral progress. Divine providence, we are told, works after that manner; and the reasoning is plausible enough to require close attention. There has always been peril for religion in association with external power and prestige-and the peril of religion is the peril of progress. Will spiritual ideas ever urge those whose lives they rule to seek with any solicitude the gifts of time? Will they not, on the other hand, increasingly, as they ought, draw the desires of the best away from what is immediate, earthly, and in all the lower senses personal? To put it in a word, must not the man of spiritual mind always be a prophet, that is, a critic of human life in its relations to the present world? Will there come a time in the history of the race when the criticism of the prophet shall no longer be needed and his mantle will fall from him? That can only be when all the Lords people are prophets, when everywhere the earthly is counted as nothing in view of the heavenly, when men will seek continually a new revelation of good, and the criticism of Christ shall be so acknowledged that no one shall need to repeat after Him, "How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour: that cometh from God only?" By heavenly means alone shall heavenly ends be secured, and the keen pursuit of earthly good will never bring the race of men into the paradise where Christ reigns. Outward magnificence is neither a symbol nor an ally of spiritual power. It hinders instead of aiding the soul in the quest of what is eternally excellent, touching the sensuous, not the divine, in man. Christ is still, as in the days of His flesh, utterly indifferent to the means by which power and distinction are gained in the world. The spread of His ideas, the manifestation of His Godhead, the coming of His Kingdom, depend not the least on the countenance of the great and the impression produced on rude minds by the shows of wealth. The first task of His gospel everywhere is to correct the barbaric tastes of men; and the highest and best in a spiritual age will be, as He was, thinkers, seers of truth, lovers of God and man, lowly in heart and life. These will express the penetrating criticism that shall move the world.
Zophar discourses of one who is openly unjust and rapacious. He is candid enough to admit that, for a time, the schemes and daring of the wicked may succeed, but affirms that, though his head may "reach to the clouds," it is only that he may be cast down.
Knowest thou not this from of old,
Since man was placed upon earth,
That the triumphing of the wicked is short,
And the joy of the godless but for a moment,
Though his excellency ascend to heaven,
And his head reach to the clouds,
Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung:
They who saw him shall say, Where is he?
Like a dream he shall flee, no more to be found,
Yea, he shall be chased away like a night vision.
As a certainty, based on facts quite evident since the beginning of human history, Zophar presents anew the overthrow of the evildoer. He is sure that the wicked does not keep his prosperity through a long life. Such a thing has never occurred in the range of human experience. The godless man is allowed, no doubt, to lift himself up for a time; but his day is short. Indeed he is great for a moment only, and that in appearance. He never actually possesses the good things of earth, but only seems to possess them. Then in the hour of judgment he passes like a dream and perishes forever. The affirmation is precisely that which has been made again and again; and with some curiosity we scan the words of Zophar to learn what addition he makes to the scheme so often pressed.
Sooth to say, there is no reasoning, nothing but affirmation. He discusses no doubtful case, enters into no careful discrimination of the virtuous who enjoy from the godless who perish, makes no attempt to explain the temporary success granted to the wicked. The man he describes is one who has acquired wealth by unlawful means, who conceals his wickedness, rolling it like a sweet morsel under his tongue. We are told further that he has oppressed and neglected the poor and violently taken away a house, and he has so behaved himself that all the miserable watch for his downfall with hungry eyes. But these charges, virtually of avarice, rapacity, and inhumanity, are far from definite, far from categorical. Not without reason would any man have so bad a reputation, and if deserved it would ensure the combination against him of all right-minded people. But men may be evil hearted and inhuman who are not rapacious; they may be vile and yet not given to avarice. And Zophars account of the ruin of the profane, though he makes it a Divine act, pictures the rising of society against one whose conduct is no longer endurable-a robber chief, the tyrant of a valley. His argument fails in this, that though the history of the proud evildoers destruction were perfectly true to fact, it would apply to a very few only amongst the population, -one in ten thousand, leaving the justice of Divine providence in greater doubt than ever, because the avarice and selfishness of smaller men are not shown to have corresponding punishment, are not indeed so much as considered. Zophar describes one whose bold and flagrant iniquity rouses the resentment of those not particularly honest themselves, not religious, nor even humane, but merely aware of their own danger from his violent rapacity. A man, however, may be avaricious who is not strong, may have the will to prey on others but not the power. The real distinction, therefore, of Zophars criminal is his success in doing what many of those he oppresses and despoils would do if they were able, and the picturesque passage leaves no deep moral impression. We read it and seem to feel that the overthrow of this evildoer is one of the rare and happy instances of poetical justice which sometimes occur in real life, but not so frequently as to make a man draw back in the act of oppressing a poor dependant or robbing a helpless widow.
In all sincerity Zophar speaks, with righteous indignation against the man whose rum he paints, persuades that he is following, step for step, the march of Divine judgment. His eye kindles, his voice rings with poetic exultation.
He hath swallowed down riches; he shall vomit them again:
God shall cast them out of his belly.
He shall suck the poison of asps;
The vipers tongue shall slay him.
He shall not look upon the rivers,
The flowing streams of honey and butter.
That which he toiled for shall he restore,
And shall not swallow it down;
Not according to the wealth he has gotten
Shall he have enjoyment,
There was nothing left that he devoured not;
Therefore his prosperity shall not abide.
In his richest abundance he shall be in straits;
The hand of every miserable one shall come upon him.
When he is about to fill his belly God shall cast the fury of His wrath upon him
And rain upon him his food.
He has succeeded for a time, concealing or fortifying himself among the mountains. He has store of silver and gold and garments taken by violence, of cattle and sheep captured in the plain. But the district is roused. Little by little he is driven back into the uninhabited desert. His supplies are cut off and he is brought to extremity. His food becomes to him as the gall of asps. With all his ill-gotten wealth he is in straits, for he is hunted from place to place. Not for him now the luxury of the green oasis and the coolness of flowing streams. He is an outlaw, in constant danger of discovery. His children wander to places where they are not known and beg for bread. Reduced to abject fear, he restores the goods he had taken by violence, trying to buy off the enmity of his pursuers. Then come the last skirmish, the clash of weapons, ignominious death.
He shall flee from the iron weapon,
And the bow of brass shall pierce him through.
He draweth it forth; it cometh out of his body:
Yea, the glittering shaft cometh out of his gall.
Terrors are upon him,
All darkness is laid up for his treasures;
A fire not blown shall consume him.
It shall devour him that is left in his tent.
The heaven shall reveal his iniquity,
And the earth shall rise against him.
The increase of his house shall depart,
Be washed away in the day of His wrath.
This is the lot of a wicked man from God,
And the heritage appointed to him by God.
Vain is resistance when he is brought to bay by his enemies. A moment of overwhelming terror, and he is gone. His tent blazes up and is consumed, as if the breath of God made hot the avenging flame. Within it his wife and children perish. Heaven seems to have called for his destruction and earth to have obeyed the summons. So the craft and strength of the freebooter, living on the flocks and harvests of industrious people, are measured vainly against the indignation of God, who has Ordained the doom of wickedness.
A powerful word picture. Yet if Zophar and the rest taught such a doctrine of retribution, and, put to it, could find no other; if they were in the way of saying, "This is the lot of a wicked man from God," how far away must Divine judgment have seemed from ordinary life, from the falsehoods daily spoken, the hard words and blows dealt to the slave, the jealousies and selfishness of the harem. Under the pretext of showing the righteous Judge, Zophar makes it impossible, or next to impossible, to realise His presence and authority. Men must be stirred up on Gods behalf or His judicial anger will not be felt.
It is however when we apply the picture to the case of Job that we see its falsehood. Against the facts of his career Zophars account of Divine judgment stands out as flat heresy, a foul slander charged on the providence of God. For he means that Job wore in his own settlement the hypocritical dress of piety and benevolence and must have elsewhere made brigandage his trade, that his servants who died by the sword of Chaldaeans and Sabeans and the fire of heaven had been his army of rievers, that the cause of his ruin was heavens intolerance and earths detestation of so vile a life. Zophar describes poetic justice, and reasons back from it to Job. Now it becomes flagrant injustice against God and man. We cannot argue from what sometimes is to what must be. Although Zophar had taken in hand to convict one really and unmistakably a miscreant, truth alone would have served the cause of righteousness. But he assumes, conjectures, and is immeasurably unjust and cruel to his friend.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Produces nothing new; much more outspoken than before. Enlarges…
ZOPHAR’S SECOND SPEECH
Produces nothing new; much more outspoken than before. Enlarges on the miseries overtaking the wicked, insinuating that Job was such. His argument,—like in condition, like in character.
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I. The introduction to the speech
His reason for speaking again, viz., Job’s charges of cruelty and unkindness, and his denunciation of Divine wrath against them on account of it (Job_20:2). “Therefore (because of thy charges and denunciations), do my thoughts (cogitations as to what I ought to do) cause me to answer, and for this I make haste (margin, ‘my haste’ [or earnestness] is in me). I have heard the check of my reproach (reproof that is a reproach to me), and the spirit of my understanding (my spirit which has intelligence regarding the subject in question) causeth me to answer.” Observe—
1. The part of a wise man not to speak without sufficient reason. Zophar had a reason for speaking, but not a correct one. Job’s charges and denunciations were true and just.
2. Pride ill brooks reproof. Men seldom willing to take the reproach which they give to others. “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
3. Right to think well before uttering one’s sentiments on more serious subjects. Better that our thoughts cause us to answer than our feelings.
4. Insensibility no part of piety. Zophar felt as well as thought. Spoke from ardour as well as reflection. Good to be zealously affected in a good thing. What is not spoken earnestly may as well remain unspoken.
5. Earnestness to be grounded on just considerations. Thought to lead, feeling to follow. “While I was musing the fire burned.” Zophar’s feeling called “haste.” Often too much haste both in our feeling and our words. With less haste in Zophar’s spirit, there had been more humanity in his speech. “He that hasteth with his feet sinneth.” Not less he that hasteth with his tongue. “Be not rash with thy mouth.” “Slow to speak, swift to hear.” What is spoken in haste, frequently not according to truth. Hasty words make matter for repentance. Hastily spoken not always hastily forgotten. Hasty words often make deep wounds. “The hasty to speak the slowest to learn” (Pro_29:20).
6. A spirit of intelligence to be prized and cultivated. Natural understanding the gift of God, but may either be fed or famished. The best way to a good understanding is a good life. “An honest man has half as much more brains as he needs.” “A good understanding have all they that keep His commandments.” Christ made “wisdom” to those who are in Him, as well as righteousness and sanctification (1Co_1:30). Wisdom given to believing prayer (Jas_1:5-6). To have a good understanding one needs to keep both eyes and ears open. A spirit of intelligence necessary to a good answer. A light needful for entering a dark chamber. Safe not to speak on a subject till you are conscious of understanding it.
II. The speech itself
The gist of it—Job must be a wicked man. The reasoning—Wicked men are miserable, either now or afterwards; Job is very miserable; therefore Job is a wicked man. The question: Are only wicked men miserable in this life? Job maintains that the wicked are not always nor alone miserable; that “time and chance come alike to all.” Zophar’s second speech another example of lofty Oriental poetry. Contains solemn and weighty truths, quoted and verified to this day. His opening statement such (Job_20:5). “The triumphing (or song) of the wicked is short (Heb., from near; like water taken from the surface instead of a deep well, therefore ending quickly and abruptly); the joy of the hypocrite (or profane) is but for a moment.” The allusion to Job’s case too obvious. The statement true, but not always in the sense of Zophar. The joy of the wicked short-lived. May last through life, but not beyond it. The pleasure of sin but for a season. The joy of the ungodly short, as—
(1) It has no solid foundation—built only on earthly things that perish with the using;
(2) Is based upon a falsehood, viz., that sin and the creature are able to give happiness;
(3) Can only exist in the present life. Creature-enjoyment no longer-lived than the creature itself. Sin in its own nature opposed to lasting enjoyment. Divine justice engaged to terminate it in this life. Sin a tree with branches enough, but no root; with plenty of blossom, but no fruit. Observe—
1. The longest life but “for a moment.”
(1) In comparison with eternity;
(2) In the view of the individual himself towards its close. Sad, for the pleasure of a moment to throw away the joys of an endless life.—
2. The joy of the hypocrite or profane “but for a moment.”—
(1) As confined to this life;
(2) In comparison with the joy of the righteous, which is lasting. The joy of a false religion, or of a mere external profession and shallow experience of the true, a lamp that goes out from want of oil.—Zophar refers to all past history for confirmation (Job_20:4). “Knowest thou not this of old,” &c. The history of the past most useful when serving as a guide to the present. History full of examples of the
Short-lived prosperity of sin
The memory of the Flood and its terrible lessons still fresh in the days of Zophar. The truth solemn and salutary, but Zophar’s application of it cruel and unjust. His statements, too, require a wider field of vision than the present world.
1. The prosperous ungodly sooner or later overthrown with contempt and infamy (Job_20:6). “Though his excellency (loftiness or exaltation) mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds (though he attain the highest pitch of earthly prosperity and grandeur), yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung (cast away with contempt and abhorrence; or, according to some, in the midst of his splendour’); they that have seen him (beholding with admiration his prosperity) shall say, ‘Where is he?’ Obvious allusion to job’s former dignity and prosperity. Prosperous wickedness is—
(1) One of the mysteries of Providence;
(2) One of the trials of good men;
(3) One of the proofs of a future judgment. The perplexity of Asaph till he “went into the sanctuary of God,” and understood the end (Psa_78:17). No man to be called happy till the end of his life, a maxim of the ancient heathen. Revelation adds, Nor till after the end of it. Christ lifts the curtain and shows what is beyond. Humbling contrast with former haughtiness and magnificence implied in Zophar’s simile (so Psa_83:10). Contempt and infamy attach to wickedness, however prosperous. A day coming when God’s despisers shall be an abhorring to all flesh (Isa_66:24).
2. The prosperous ungodly vanish from sight and memory (Job_20:8). “He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found; yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. The eye also which saw him (looked on him with admiration) shall see him no more, &c.” The life of the ungodly especially a dream, as—
(1) Without solidity and reality;
(2) As quickly terminating;
(3) As soon forgotten. No trace left that men care to cherish. No pleasing and profitable “footprints on the sands of time.’ Good men only the truly “great” who “remind us we can make our lives sublime.” “The memory of the wicked shall rot.” Associated with nothing excellent, noble, or benevolent. The presence of bad great men on earth a nightmare, which men would fain “chase away” and then forget. Seen especially in the case of tyrants, ambitious and unprincipled rulers, men climbing to power by forbidden ways and employing it for evil ends.
3. Their children affected by their sin (Job_20:10). “His children shall seek to please the poor (to propitiate the poor, whom their father oppressed or defrauded; or, shall be so reduced as to court the favour even of the poor; margin, ‘the poor shall oppress his children’; Cocerdale—’his children shall go a begging’); and his hand (or, “their hands”) shall restore their goods” (the goods of which their father had plundered them). Observe—
(1) An inheritance of trouble bequeathed by the ungodly to their offspring. In the Providence of God, the effects of a man’s oppression made to extend to his children. The child often reaps what the father sows, good or bad.
(2) Ill-gotten wealth, sooner or later, proves ill-gotten woe. Restitution of unjust gains follows either in a man’s own life-time or his children’s. Made voluntarily, the curse is averted both from himself and them. Zaccheus the publican (Luk_19:1, &c). The reference here to the rich man’s children cruel towards Job, still mourning the loss of his seven sons and three daughters.
4. Effects of their sin entailed on their own person (Job_20:11). “His bones are full of the sins of his youth (or of his secret sins, or of youthful vigour), which shall lie down with him in the dust.” Apparent allusion to Job’s diseased body. Observe—
(1) Bodily disease often the result of by-gone excesses. Age often made to inherit the sins of youth (ch. Job_13:26). Hence David’s prayer (Psa_25:7). Seeds of disease sown in sinful indulgences. The drunkard carries the effects of his cups to the grave. Secret sins often followed by open sufferings. A cruel insinuation on the part of Zophar that this was Job’s case.
(2) The sinner often smitten with disease and death in the midst of prosperity and apparent strength. Herod at Cesarea (Act_12:21-23).
(3) Sad when a man’s sins lie down with him in the dust. Certain, if not prevented by repentance, faith, and forgiveness. To lie down with him in the dust is to continue his companions for ever (Rev_22:11). Separation from our sins either now or never.
5. Terrible misery after temporary enjoyment (Job_20:12-14). “Though wickedness (especially in the acquisition and enjoyment of ill-gotten wealth), be sweet in his mouth; though he hide it under his tongue (either for secrecy or continued enjoyment); though he spare it and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: yet his meat in his bowels is turned; it is the gall of asps (the most deadly poison) within him.” Sin sweet to the unrenewed heart. Stolen waters sweet. Such sweetness short-lived. Honey in the mouth becomes gall in the bowels. Sin in itself a deadly poison. Death itself, and death its wages. David’s sweet sin with Bathsheba broke his bones. The blood of Urijah brought blood into his house. The effect of sinful enjoyment is to “mourn at the last” (Pro_5:11-14). Poison no less deadly became sweet to the taste. The sweetest things often the sourest afterwards.
6. Forced surrender of acquired wealth (Job_20:15). “He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again; God shall cast them out of his belly.” Apparently Job’s case. Riches eagerly pursued, abundantly obtained, and fondly enjoyed, to be sooner or later unwillingly surrendered. The worldling and his wealth part company, if not before, yet on a dying bed. The glutton compelled to vomit up his dainty morsels. “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” The sumptuous table then gladly exchanged for a drop of water. The worldling unable to keep his wealth a moment beyond God’s pleasure. A thousand means at His disposal of making him quit his grasp on this side of death. The failure of a bank, the fall of a mercantile house, the explosion of some promising speculation, sufficient for the purpose. “But even now worth this, and now worth nothing!”
7. Death in some distressing form and circumstances (Job_20:16). “He shall suck the poison of asps (the most deadly one); the viper’s tongue (put out when about to bite), shall slay him.” All animate and inanimate nature only instruments for the execution of God’s purposes, whether of judgment or of mercy. The effect of the intoxicating cup, that at last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder (Pro_23:32). To suck the pleasures of sin now is to suck the poison of asps hereafter. The Bible draws aside the veil and reveals man’s tempter become his tormenter (Luk_16:19-26).
8. Bitter disappointment and exclusion from future happiness (Job_20:17). “He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.” A blessedness even in this life, of which, the worldling deprives himself. Still more in the life to come. The river of life, the wine of the kingdom, the fruits of paradise, the joys at God’s right hand, the pleasures for evermore, all forfeited for the momentary pleasures of sin. To the cry at the closed gates: “Lord, Lord, open unto us,” the only response: “Depart from me, I never know you.”
9. No real enjoyment of his riches even here (Job_20:18). “That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down (or enjoy it); according to his sub stance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.” Riches gathered often become riches scattered. To obtain wealth one thing, to enjoy it another. Great gains not always great gain. Man gets, God gives. Ill-gotten, ill-gone, [Latin Proverb]. Wealth often the parent of woe. A canker in a sinner’s gold (Jas_5:3). Wages earned without God only put into a bag with holes. The world a lie, especially to those who trust in it. Money outside the heart a blessing, inside of it a curse.
10. A troubled conscience (Job_20:19-20). “Because he hath oppressed and hath for saken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not (obtaining it by fraud instead of honest industry); surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly (his mind or conscience), he shall not save of that which he desired” (or, shall not escape with his coveted but illgotten wealth). Another cruel and unjust allusion to Job. The charge of oppression afterwards directly made by Eliphaz (ch. Job_22:5-9). Taken generally, the statement true. Ill-gained wealth, like the hoarded manna, breeds worms; the worm of an accusing conscience. The rust of dishonest gain eats into the flesh like fire (Jas_5:3). A house built by oppression gives a voice to its stones and timber (Hab_2:9-11). A quiet conscience better than a well-filled coffer. Naboth’s coveted vineyard a curse both to Ahab and his wife (1Ki_21:1-19).
11. Loss of property and of children (Job_20:21). There shall none of his meat be left (margin, “there shall none be left for his meat”); therefore shall no man look for his goods.” A cutting sentence for impoverished and bereaved Job. Job’s full house now an empty one. His goods gone, and none to inherit the miserable remnant. The richest man in Uz now penniless. The man with ten adult children now without even one. Able lately to leave an ample inheritance to his children, now without either estate or sons to inherit it. One of the world’s vanities the desire to enrich one’s heirs. God and man often robbed while living to leave larger sums when dead. A worldly man’s great affliction to lose the heir of his hoarded wealth. The rich worldling often compelled to leave his riches to those for whom he cares not, and who care not for him.
12. Perplexity and trouble in the midst of his riches (Job_20:22). “In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked (or of the mischievous; every kind of mischief; or every blow that comes upon the wretched) shall come upon him.” A sad and cutting remembrancer to Job of his various calamities and the quarter from which some of them had come. God, in His providence, visits the prosperous wicked with sudden and unexpected manifestations of His anger (Job_20:23) “When he is about to fill his belly (or, ‘there shall be wherewith to fill his belly’) God shall cast the fury of His wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him (as literally on Sodom and Gomorrha; also implying the vehemence and abundance of the judgments) while be is eating” (in the midst of his enjoyment; or, “as his food”). A bitter sarcasm. The worldling sits down to his sumptuous table, but the wrath of God shall be his dish. Vengeance shall be his viand. He shall be fed with fury for his food. Case of the rich fool (Luk_12:16-20). Experienced by Israel in the wilderness (Num_11:33; Psa_78:30-31. Appeared to have been realised in Job. Overtaken by apparent judgments in the midst of his prosperity. Fire rained on his cattle as on the cities of the Plain (ch. Job_1:16; Gen_19:24). Fiery rain instead of refreshing showers an awful sign of judgment (Psa_50:3).
13. Inability to effect escape (Job_20:24). “He shall flee from the iron weapon (the weapon employed in close combat,—visible judgments),—and the bow (discharging its arrows from a distance,—invisible judgments) of steel (Heb. of brass; therefore with all the more force) shall strike him through.” Seeking to escape from one evil he falls into another. Fleeing from the pit he falls into the snare. God at no loss for means to punish the ungodly. Vain attempt to escape when God purposes to destroy. The only place of refuge for a sinner the wounds of Jesus opened to satisfy justice for his sins. Submission to God and faith in His Son the only but certain safety for the guilty.
14. Rapid and effectual execution of God’s purposes of vengeance (Job_20:25). “It is drawn (viz., the arrow or the sword with which to punish the ungodly), and cometh out of the body (having passed through it); yea, the glittering sword (of Divine vengeance, Deu_32:41; Eze_21:9-10) cometh out of his gall (or gall-bladder, having thus inflicted a deadly wound): terrors are upon him” (the terror of death which now stares him in the face, and the terrors of judgment immediately to follow). The language rapid, elliptical, and in the past and present tense, to indicate the suddenness and certainty of the blow. A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. How shall we escape if we neglect the great salvation? (Job_20:16.—“All darkness (all kinds of calamity, or accumulated misery) shall be hid in his secret places,” (hid amongst his choicest treasures, or secretly laid up for him in places where he expected safety). Observe—
(1) God’s judgments find the sinner in his most secret and secure retreat. “When they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them.”
(2) Among a sinner’s most valuable possessions lies a hidden curse. “A fire not blown (requiring no blowing, or not kindled by man, viz., the ‘fire of God’ or lightning, as ch. Job_1:16) shall consume him.” Terrible word for poor Job, who had seen his sheep and the shepherds consumed in this very way. A similar judgment on the household of Korah, &c. (Num_16:35). “It shall go ill with him that is left (or, ‘it shall consume’ what is left) in his tabernacle.” Words cruelly telling in the case of Job. The fire of God had left but one shepherd to tell the tale of the disaster. Stroke after stroke had fallen on his property and household, till all were consumed but his wife and three servants. Job, if any, seemed marked out by Divine judgments as a secret and guilty transgressor. Terrible trial for faith. “Who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?” (Psa_76:7).
15. Secret sins discovered (Job_20:27). “The heavens shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.” Apparently verified in Job’s case. The lightning from heaven, and the Chaldean and Sabean marauders, with the whirlwind of the desert, from the earth, seemed to proclaim him a wicked man, whom vengeance was at length overtaking (Act_28:4). Observe—
(1) Animate and inanimate creation made at God’s pleasure to conspire against his enemies.
(2) Iniquity, however secretly committed, sooner or later revealed. No darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide either themselves or their sins. Secret iniquity not only open to God’s view, but one day to be so to that of the universe. Hypocrisy only now “the only evil that walks invisible, except to God alone.” No cloak of religion able to hide sin from God, or by-and-by, from our neighbour either. Terrible exposure awaiting secret evil-doers.
(3) Our sins either to be found out now by ourselves and brought to the throne of grace to be pardoned, or to be found out hereafter by God, and brought to the throne of judgment to be punished.
16. Destruction of all belongings in a day of wrath (Job_20:28). “The increase (progeny, or natural products) of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away (be swept away as by a torrent, suddenly and irrecoverably) in the day of his wrath.” Sad verification of this apparently afforded in the case of Job. The whole progeny of his house, with all his goods, swept away as by an inundation. A day of wrath now surely overtaking this prince of Uz. Difficult for him and his friends to believe otherwise. To the latter the thing was clear. To Job it seemed so; but if actual wrath, it was undeserved. Job’s error in sometimes inclining to the latter alternative. His apparent “day of wrath” was, in reality, a day of love. Observe—
(1) The province of faith to believe against all appearances. “Behind a frowning providence,” &c.
(2) Easy with God to sweep away all the increase of a man’s house.
(3) A day of wrath coming, in which all earthly possessions will flow away. “The earth and the works therein shall be burned up” (2Pe_3:10).
III. The summing-up (Job_20:29).
“This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God” (Heb., the heritage of the decree of the Mighty One; decreed by Him who is Almighty, therefore irresistible). Similar language in Psa_11:6. The conclusion apparently unavoidable in relation to Job. The portion of a wicked man manifestly meted out to him. If Job is not such a man, all our notions of the Divine government in this world are upset—the rock is “removed out of his place.” Strong faith and a sound conscience required by Job to believe that God would yet clear his character. The statement of Zophar both true and untrue. Viewed in relation to this life, not always true. Viewed in relation to the next, far short of the fact. A more terrible portion awaits the impenitent in another world. The harrowing things mentioned by Zophar only a foreshadowing and prelude to the sinner’s future doom. Wrath rarely exhibited in this world, because reserved for the next. Days of wrath here sent as specimens and warnings of that which is to come.
“That day of wrath, that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away.
What power shall be the sinner’s stay?
How shall ye meet that dreadful day?
Jesus, be Thou my spirit’s stay,
Though heaven and earth shall pass away.”
Observe—
(1) A sinner’s portion not what he wishes, but what God appoints.
(2) His portion a heritage—(i.) As contrasted with his earthly possessions and enjoyments; (ii.) As certain to find him as its heir;
(3) Solemn contrast between this portion and that of the believer in Jesus (Psa_16:5; 1Pe_1:3).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The enduring effects of early transgression.
Job 20:11
The enduring effects of early transgression.
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I. Notice, first, how difficult and almost impossible it is, in reference to the present scene of being, to make up by after-diligence for time lost in youth. It is appointed by God that one stage of life should be strictly preparatory to another, just as our own residence on earth is to immortality in the invisible world.
II. This truth is exemplified with reference to bodily health. The man who has injured his constitution by the excesses of youth cannot repair the mischief by after-acts of self-denial. He must carry with him to the grave impaired energies and trembling limbs, and feel and exhibit the painful tokens of premature old age.
III. The possession of the iniquities of youth affects men when stirred with anxiety for the soul, and desirous to seek and obtain the pardon of sin. The great battle which a man has to fight when endeavouring to conform himself to the will of God is a battle with his own evil habits. And what are habits but the entailment of the sins of youth?
IV. However genuine and effectual the repentance and faith of a late period in life, it is unavoidable that the remembrance of misspent years will embitter those which you consecrate to God. Even with those who have begun early it is a constant source of regret that they began not earlier. What then shall be said of such as enter the vineyard at the tenth hour, or the eleventh, but that they must be haunted with the memory of prostituted powers, and squandered strength, and dissipated time, and that they must sorrow frequently over sins for which they can make no amends?
V. By lengthening the period of irreligion, and therefore diminishing that of obedience to God, we almost place ourselves amongst the last of the competitors for the kingdom of heaven. The lesson to the young is to remember their Creator, and not to forget that what may be done hereafter can never be done so well as now.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2183.
Reference: Job 20—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., pp. 264, 321; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 261.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Zophar's Second Speech
Zophar's Second Speech
Zophar ignores Job's conviction that God will one day establish his innocence, and proceeds to describe the short triumph of the wicked and his certain downfall and punishment at God's hand. Perhaps he wishes Job to apply the description to himself and take warning therefrom; though quite apart from that the speech is relevant to his argument that the moral order of the world is not, as Job maintains, unrighteous.
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3. The check of my reproach] RV 'the reproof which putteth me to shame.' He refers to Job's reproaches in Job 19.
10. Seek to please the poor] i.e. seek in distress the favour of the humblest. For his hands Budde reads 'his offspring.' Restore their goods] which he had extorted from them in his prosperity.
11. RV 'His bones are full of' (the vigour of) 'his youth, but it shall lie down with him in the dust.'
12, 13. Like a sweetmeat which is retained in the mouth as long as possible, so the sinner revels in his sin.
14-16. The consequences of sin figuratively described: cp. Pro_23:29-32. His meat] better, 'this food of his,' i.e. sin. Asps] a species of serpent.
17. The floods, etc.] RV 'the flowing streams of honey,' etc.: a figure of prosperity. Surely he shall not feel quietness] RM 'Because he knew no quietness in his greed.' His greed was never satisfied.
21. RV 'There was nothing left that he devoured not; therefore his prosperity shall not endure.'
22b. RV 'The hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon him'; i.e. all who have suffered at his hands.
23-29. The terrible death of the wicked.
24. Steel] better, 'bronze.'
25a. RV 'He draweth it forth, and it cometh,' etc.
26. RV 'All darkness is laid up for his treasures: a fire not blown by man shall devour him; it shall consume that which is left in his tent.'
27. The v. seems to be Zophar's harsh retort (a) to Job's conviction of a vindicator from heaven of his innocence (Job_16:19; Job_19:25), and (b) to his appeal to the earth (see Job_16:18).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 20 The Second Address of Zophar
CHAPTER 20 The Second Address of Zophar
1. Zophar’s swift reply (Job 20:1-3)
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2. Another description of the life and fate of the wicked (Job 20:4-29)
Job 20:1-3. Zophar, the twitterer, begins his reply to Job with impatient haste. Job’s words, probably those found in chapter 19:2-3, and the last two verses, have made him angry. He boils over with indignation. He is ready now to confirm the testimony already given and wound the suffering servant of God still more.
Job 20:4-29. He follows the same path and there is again nothing new in his argument. The description of the wicked is great; no fault can be found with what he says about those who are ungodly. The triumphing of the wicked, and the joy of the ungodly is for a moment only. He is bound to perish Swiftly; like a dream, like a vision he vanisheth away. His children remain poverty stricken. He may swallow down riches, but he vomits them up again. And so he continues in his portrayal of the ungodly. Wrath is finally coming upon him. Such is the portion of the wicked man from God. But the serious mistake Zophar made is twofold. Job had pleaded for pity. Not a word of pity comes from Zophar’s lips. The whole address is meant to tell Job “Thou art that man!” And the second mistake, he does not consider for a moment Job’s utterance which could not come from the lips of an ungodly person, but from one who knows God.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 Zophar States Why he must Speak
Zophar States Why he must Speak
v. 1. Then answered Zophar, the Naamathite, speaking for the second time, Cf 11, and said,
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v. 2. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, because the statements of Job filled him with excitement, for that very reason he felt that his reply should be tempered by calm consideration, and for this I make haste, he was storming inwardly, he was deeply perturbed, his inward impulse gave him no rest, he felt constrained to furnish an answer because of the surging excitement in his mind, which, however, should be governed by calm thoughts.
v. 3. I have heard the check of my reproach, he was obliged to hear Job’s chiding, to his disgrace, as he regarded it, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer, the knowledge which his mind had gained in the course of the dispute furnished him with information concerning the proper way of judging Job, with the latter’s insulting attacks. He was eagerly impetuous to give Job back blow for blow.
v. 4. Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, since earth was inhabited, as far as the accounts of men go back,
v. 5. that the triumphing of the wicked is short, that it never extends over a long period of time, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment, that the joyful confidence of the ungodly cannot last? This was probably directed at Job’s certainty of eventual vindication, as he had expressed it at the end of his last speech, 19:25-27. Zophar was a representative of the class of people who feel obliged to parade their own judgment in every case that comes to their notice.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 23, 26, 28 General Information:
General Information:
Zophar replies to Job.
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Zophar the Naamathite
See how you translated this man's name in Job 2:11. Since this is the second time that Zophar speaks, some translations omit "the Naamathite" here.
My thoughts make me answer quickly
The idea of Zophar's thoughts making him do something represents his strong desire to do something. AT: "I want very much to answer you quickly" (See: Metaphor)
because of the worry that is in me
The abstract noun "worry" can be expressed with the adjective "worried." The reason for the worry can be stated clearly. AT: "because I am very worried about you" or "because I am very worried because of what you said" (See: Abstract Nouns and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
I hear a rebuke that dishonors me
The abstract noun "rebuke" can be expressed with the verb "rebuke." AT: "I hear you rebuke me, and what you say dishonors me" or "You insult me by how you rebuke me" (See: Abstract Nouns)
a spirit from my understanding answers me
Here "spirit" probably refers to a thought or idea. AT: "a thought from my understanding answers me"
a spirit from my understanding answers me
This "spirit" or thought is spoken of as if it were a person that could answer Zophar. AT: "I have a thought from my understanding, and now I know what I wanted to know" (See: Personification)
a spirit from my understanding answers me
The content of the answer can be stated clearly. AT: "a thought from my understanding answers me about how I can reply to you" or "I have a thought from my understanding, and now I know how I can reply to you" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
a spirit from my understanding answers me
The abstract nouns "spirit" and "understanding" can be expressed with the verbs "think" and "understand." AT: "because I understand things, I have thought, and now I know how I can reply to you" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
rebuke
dishonor
spirit
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 10, 14, 17, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27 20:7 thrown away like their own dung: Cp. 1…
20:7 thrown away like their own dung: Cp. 1 Kgs 14:9-11; 2 Kgs 9:36-37; Ps 83:10; Jer 8:1-2.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.