Zophar Speaks: You Deserve Worse
1 Job, taking liberty of complaint, expostulated with God about his afflictions. 18 He complained of life, and craved a little ease before death.
Job 11:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
Job announces his intention to speak plainly. The three parts of the sentence have been described as “three convulsive sobs like the sparse large drops before the storm.”
Job 11:2 “Are all these words to go unanswered? Is this talker to be vindicated?
Job is again raising the unanswered question, “Why?” In the verses that follow, he examines one supposition after another as to why God treats him thus. These suppositions Job rejects as being out of harmony with God’s nature. The chapter ends with Job still confused as to the intentions and purposes of God.
Job 11:3 Will your idle talk reduce others to silence? Will no one rebuke you when you mock?
Does God get any pleasure out of oppressing His creatures? God has made man. Why should He despise His workmanship? “How is it,” Job inquires, “that the wicked seem to be better treated than those who love God?”
Job 11:4 You say to God, ‘My beliefs are flawless and I am pure in your sight.’
Job’s second question: “Is God finite in His judgments—that He distributes rewards and punishments on the basis of a mistaken understanding of men’s merits?” His friends have misjudged him; perhaps God has misjudged him also.
Job 11:5 Oh, how I wish that God would speak, that he would open his lips against you
Job’s third question: “Is God short-lived, therefore limited in experience and understanding? Does God expect soon to die, and therefore bear down on Job as if time were limited?” As man’s days. Heb. kime geber, “like the days of a strong man.” The parallel expression in the preceding clause is a translation of kime ’enosh, “like the days of mankind.”
Job 11:6 and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.
Job 11:7 “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
Two ideas appear throughout Job’s speeches: first, his sense of innocence; and second, his sense of helplessness. Job realizes that his questions (vs. 3 6) are so obviously out of harmony with God’s character that he cannot give them serious consideration. The distracted sufferer is back where he started, still faced with the taunting question, “Why?” Job 11:8 They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?
Who makes a beautiful vase only to be destroyed? Who moulds a statue from marble only to break it in pieces? Who builds a splendid edifice only to pull it down? Who plants a rare and precious flower only to have the pleasure of plucking it up?
Job 11:9 Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
This and the following verse are generally considered as descriptive of conception and embryonic development.
Job 11:10 “If he comes along and confines you in prison and convenes a court, who can oppose him?
Job 11:11 Surely he recognizes deceivers; and when he sees evil, does he not take note?
Job 11:12 But the witless can no more become wise than a wild donkey’s colt can be born human.
Job 11:13 “Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him,
The phrase is thought by some to introduce the verses that follow. Job is saying, if this interpretation is correct, that despite God’s care for him, He had entertained malignant purposes that now were finding expression.
Job 11:14 if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
Sin. Heb. chaṭa’, “to miss the mark,” not willful rebellion, which is represented in Hebrew by the root pasha‘. Job complains that God is too severe concerning small sins.
Job 11:15 then, free of fault, you will lift up your face; you will stand firm and without fear.
Job complains that even in this case he cannot lift his head. He suffers despite his righteousness and cannot vindicate himself.
Job 11:16 You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by.
God afflicts in strange and marvelous ways, says Job.
Job 11:17 Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning.
Each fresh calamity testifies that God is displeased with Job. Changes and war. Literally, “changes and a host.” The figure is probably that of armies, ever renewing their forces to maintain the pressure and momentum of their attacks.
Job 11:18 You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety.
Job renews his lament regarding his birth (see ch. 3:1–13).
Job 11:19 You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid, and many will court your favor.
Job 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; their hope will become a dying gasp.”
Plaintively, Job pleads for a little comfort before he dies.