Job Chapter 20
1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,
2 "Therefore my thoughts answer me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.
3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.
4 Don't you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,
5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?
6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
7 yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'
8 He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more.
10 His children will seek the favour of the poor. His hands will give back his wealth.
11 His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust.
12 "Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,
13 though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth;
14 yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.
15 He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.
16 He will suck cobra venom. The viper's tongue will kill him.
17 He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
18 He will restore that for which he laboured, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten.
19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up.
20 "Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights.
21 There was nothing left that he didn't devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure.
22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him.
23 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.
24 He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through.
25 He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.
26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him.
28 The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath.
29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God."
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Job Chapter 20 Guide
With evident haste, Zophar replied. His speech is introduced with an apology for his haste and a confession of his anger. He had heard the reproof, but he was not convinced; and the spirit of his understanding prompted him to reply. His reply is like that of Bildad, but is characterized by even greater force and more terrible description.
He opened with a general declaration on the brevity of wickedness. This he argued by tracing the course of an imaginary person who is godless. In a passage thrilling with passion, he described the instability of evil gains. There is a triumph, but it is short. There is a mounting up, but it is succeeded by swift vanishing. There is a sense of youth, but it becomes dust. There is a sweetness, but it becomes remorse; a swallowing down which ends in vomiting; a getting without rejoicing.
The reason for all this he then declared. The pathway has been one of oppression until the oppressed turned on the oppressor. The final nemesis is fearfully set forth. God turns on him, pursues him with the instruments of judgment. Darkness enwraps him. His sin is set in the light of the heavens, and earth rejects him. The speech ends, as in the case of Bildad, with an application (29). Throughout the description Job had evidently been in mind, and he is left to make the application.
Thus, in the second cycle the proposition made by each man with varying emphasis was that it is the wicked who suffer.
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
Job Chapter 20 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- Zophar speaks of the short joy of the wicked. -- (1-9)
- The ruin of the wicked. -- (10-22)
- The portion of the wicked. -- (23-29)
Verses 1-9
Zophar's discourse is upon the certain misery of the wicked. The triumph of the wicked and the joy of the hypocrite are fleeting. The pleasures and gains of sin bring disease and pain; they end in remorse, anguish, and ruin. Dissembled piety is double iniquity, and the ruin that attends it will be accordingly.
Verses 10-22
The miserable condition of the wicked man in this world is fully set forth. The lusts of the flesh are here called the sins of his youth. His hiding it and keeping it under his tongue, denotes concealment of his beloved lust, and delight therein. But He who knows what is in the heart, knows what is under the tongue, and will discover it. The love of the world, and of the wealth of it, also is wickedness, and man sets his heart upon these. Also violence and injustice, these sins bring God's judgments upon nations and families. Observe the punishment of the wicked man for these things. Sin is turned into gall, than which nothing is more bitter; it will prove to him poison; so will all unlawful gains be. In his fulness he shall be in straits, through the anxieties of his own mind. To be led by the sanctifying grace of God to restore what was unjustly gotten, as Zaccheus was, is a great mercy. But to be forced to restore by the horrors of a despairing conscience, as Judas was, has no benefit and comfort attending it.
Verses 23-29
Zophar, having described the vexations which attend wicked practices, shows their ruin from God's wrath. There is no fence against this, but in Christ, who is the only Covert from the storm and tempest, Isa 32:2. Zophar concludes, "This is the portion of a wicked man from God;" it is allotted him. Never was any doctrine better explained, or worse applied, than this by Zophar, who intended to prove Job a hypocrite. Let us receive the good explanation, and make a better application, for warning to ourselves, to stand in awe and sin not. One view of Jesus, directed by the Holy Spirit, and by him suitably impressed upon our souls, will quell a thousand carnal reasonings about the suffering of the faithful.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.