Zophar Speaks: The Wicked Will Suffer
Zophar showed the state and portion of the wicked.
Job 20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
This is Zophar’s second speech. His purpose is to show that no matter how high a wicked man may be exalted, no matter how prosperous he may become, God will humble him and cause him to suffer. The application to Job is too obvious to be overlooked. Chapter 19 has closed with a warning from the lips of Job. Zophar resents Job’s shifting the menace of punishment onto his friends, when Zophar is certain that Job alone is guilty.
Job 20:2 “My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed. 2. My thoughts. Zophar’s thoughts are not calm reflection or profound meditation. He is agitated. His thoughts seem to be tumbling over each other for expression. I make haste. Zophar admits his hasty and impetuous temperament.
Job 20:3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply.
Probably Zophar refers to what Job had said at the close of his speech (ch. 19:29). Or he may refer to the rebuke of ch. 19:2. Also, he cannot have forgotten what Job had said in reply to Zophar’s former speech (ch. 12:2). Zophar is saying, in effect, “You have accused me falsely, and my resentment impels me to reply.” This verse reveals Zophar’s character; he is excitable and impetuous. He could scarcely wait until Job had finished—then he broke out hotly.
My understanding. It is not uncommon for an impetuous person to maintain that he speaks from the dictates of calm wisdom.
Job 20:4 “Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since mankind was placed on the earth,
Sarcasm. Zophar is saying that all history proves his point.
Job 20:5 that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. This verse explains Zophar’s solution of the problem of the prosperity of the wicked. He admits that they may shout with triumph, but the joy is momentary. In part, Zophar is right; but his argument is weak in that he fails to recognize that a sinner may seem to triumph all through his mortal life (see Ps. 37:35, 36; 73:1–17). The shortness of the triumph of the wicked is one of the main topics of dispute between Job and his opponents.
Eliphaz and Bildad have both maintained the same view as Zophar (Job 4:8–11; 5:3–5; 8:11–19; 15:21, 29). Job is differently convinced. He has seen the wicked “live, become old, … mighty in power” (ch. 21:7). He has seen them “spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave” (ch. 21:13). He is not ready to admit the generalizations of his friends. Job shows greater insight than his friends—an insight born of suffering.
Job 20:6 Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.
To the heavens. Another way of describing the heights of achievement and influence that the wicked may reach (see Ps. 73:9; Dan. 4:22).
Job 20:7 he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
Job 20:8 Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night.
Job 20:9 The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more. A figure of the instability of the wicked. Nothing is more unreal and fleeting than a dream.
Zophar uses almost exactly the language regarding the sinner that Job had used regarding himself (Job 7:8, 10; cf. Job 8:18; Ps. 103:16).
Job 20:10 His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth.
This verse pictures the humiliation of the proud, prosperous sinner to the place where he seeks the favor of the poor and is forced to give them his wealth.
Job 20:11 The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.
The line reads, literally, “his bones are full of his youth,” that is, full of youthful vigor. There seems to be no need to supply the words, “of the sin.” Without them the next line may be understood as saying that youthful vigor will lie down in the dust.
Job 20:12 “Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,
This verse begins a new stanza. Wickedness has its pleasure, but it is shallow and transitory.
Job 20:13 though he cannot bear to let it go and lets it linger in his mouth,
Wickedness tastes good. The sinner hates to part with his folly and his pleasure. He is like the child who seeks to make a piece of candy last as long as possible.
Job 20:14 yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him. Sin swallowed turns bitter and becomes like the poison of the asp.
Job 20:15 He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up.
An expressive way of depicting the divine judgment that Zophar believes is in store for the wicked.
Job 20:16 He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him.
Job 20:17 He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
Honey and cream. Compare Ex. 3:8, 17; 13:5; Deut. 26:9, 15; Isa. 7:22; Joel 3:18. Prosperity was dependent upon an abundant water supply. The “butter” was probably curded milk.
Job 20:18 What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
In order to compensate those whom he has robbed, the wicked man will have to give them wealth that he has earned honestly.
Job 20:19 For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.
These charges of mistreating the poor are now, for the first time, insinuated against Job. Later, they are openly brought by Eliphaz (ch. 22:5–9). Job denies these charges (ch. 29:11–17).
Job 20:20 “Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure.
The line reads literally, “because he knew no quietness in his belly,” that is, his rapacity was never satisfied.
Cannot save. He will not be able to retain the things accumulated by his greed.
Job 20:21 Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure.
The LXX here reads, “Therefore his good things shall not flourish.”
Job 20:22 In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him.
Prosperity will not exempt him from perplexity.
Job 20:23 When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows on him.
Zophar is obviously applying these words to Job. During his prosperity, Job was brought low. Zophar’s words are intended to cut deep. He tries to set forth Job as a sinner, suffering the fury of God’s wrath.
Job 20:24 Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.
God is pictured as waging war on the sinner, who tries without success to escape.
Job 20:25 He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him;
Heb. baraq, literally, “lightning,” used figuratively here of a flashing arrowhead. The graphic picture seems to be of the wicked man trying to remove an arrow from his body. The terrors of imminent death are upon him. The inference is that Job is like such a person.
Job 20:26 total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.
The idea is probably that every kind of calamity awaits the treasures that the wicked man has gathered and laid up for himself.
Fire unfanned. This was probably a fire not kindled by human hands. Zophar may allude to the “fire of God” (ch. 1:16) that burned Job’s sheep and servants.
Job 20:27 The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him.
This is Zophar’s reply to the appeal that Job made in ch. 16:18, 19, to heaven and earth to bear witness for him. Heaven, he says, instead of speaking in his favor, will reveal his iniquity. Earth, instead of taking his part, will revolt against him.
Job 20:28 A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.
God’s wrath will cause all these things to disappear like a flood that flows away.
Job 20:29 Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.”
This conclusion is like that which Bildad drew at the close of his speech (ch. 18:21). By this flourish Zophar intended to convey to Job the idea that he could expect no other fate than that which he was suffering. This concludes Zophar’s contribution. He does not appear in the third round of speeches. His speech represents the narrow-minded, legalistic, critical attitude of the friends at its height.
It is scarcely possible to emphasize more fearfully and graphically than Zophar does, the theory that the wicked rich man is punished by God. To Zophar, Job is a godless man, who is enduring the results of his own sins. He is guilty of unjust gain; therefore, God consumes his possessions. Zophar seeks to stifle the new trust in God that Job has expressed. No suggestion of kindness or sympathy is discernible.