Job 20
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1Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
2Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.
CHAPTER 20
SECOND SERIES.
Job 20:1-29. Reply of Zophar.
2. Therefore--Rather, the more excited I feel by Job's speech, the more for that very reason shall my reply be supplied by my calm consideration. Literally, "Notwithstanding; my calm thoughts (as in Job 4:13) shall furnish my answer, because of the excitement (haste) within me" [Umbreit].
3I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
3. 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.
4Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,
5That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
5. the hypocrite--literally, "the ungodly" (Psa 37:35, 36).
6Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;
6. (Is 14:13; Ob 3, 4).
7Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
7. dung--in contrast to the haughtiness of the sinner (Job 20:6); this strong term expresses disgust and the lowest degradation (Psa 83:10; 1Ki 14:10).
8He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
8. (Psa 73:20).
9The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
9. Rather "the eye followeth him, but can discern him no more." A sharp-looking is meant (Job 28:7; Job 7:10).
10His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.
10. seek to please--"Atone to the poor" (by restoring the property of which they had been robbed by the father) [De Wette]. Better than English Version, "The children" are reduced to the humiliating condition of "seeking the favor of those very poor," whom the father had oppressed. But Umbreit translates as Margin.
his hands--rather, "their (the children's) hands."
their goods--the goods of the poor. Righteous retribution! (Ex 20:5).
11His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
11. (Psa 25:7), so Vulgate. Gesenius has "full of youth"; namely, in the fulness of his youthful strength he shall be laid in the dust. But "bones" plainly alludes to Job's disease, probably to Job's own words (Job 19:20). Umbreit translates, "full of his secret sins," as in Psa 90:8; his secret guilt in his time of seeming righteousness, like secret poison, at last lays him in the dust. The English Version is best. Zophar alludes to Job's own words (Job 17:16).
with him--His sin had so pervaded his nature that it accompanies him to the grave: for eternity the sinner cannot get rid of it (Re 22:11).
12Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
12. be--"taste sweet." Sin's fascination is like poison sweet to the taste, but at last deadly to the vital organs (Pr 20:17; Job 9:17, 18).
hide ... tongue--seek to prolong the enjoyment by keeping the sweet morsel long in the mouth (so Job 20:13).
13Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:
14Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
14. turned--Hebrew denotes a total change into a disagreeable contrary (Jr 2:21; compare Re 10:9, 10).
gall--in which the poison of the asp was thought to lie. It rather is contained in a sack in the mouth. Scripture uses popular language, where no moral truth is thereby endangered.
15He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
15. He is forced to disgorge his ill-gotten wealth.
16He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
16. shall suck--It shall turn out that he has sucked the poison, &c.
17He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
17. floods--literally, "stream of floods," plentiful streams flowing with milk, &c. (Job 29:6; Ex 3:17). Honey and butter are more fluid in the East than with us and are poured out from jars. These "rivers" or water brooks are in the sultry East emblems of prosperity.
18That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
18. Image from food which is taken away from one before he can swallow it.
restitution--(So Pr 6:31). The parallelism favors the English Version rather than the translation of Gesenius, "As a possession to be restored in which he rejoices not."
he shall not rejoice--His enjoyment of his ill-gotten gains shall then be at an end (Job 20:5).
19Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
19. oppressed--whereas he ought to have espoused their cause (2Ch 16:10).
forsaken--left helpless.
house--thus leaving the poor without shelter (Is 5:8; Mi 2:2).
20Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
20. Umbreit translates, "His inward parts know no rest" from desires.
his belly--that is, peace inwardly.
not save--literally, "not escape with that which," &c., alluding to Job's having been stripped of his all.
21There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.
21. look for--rather, "because his goods," that is, prosperity shall have no endurance.
22In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
22. shall be--rather, "he is (feeleth) straitened." The next clause explains in what respect.
wicked--Rather, "the whole hand of the miserable (whom he had oppressed) cometh upon him"; namely, the sense of his having oppressed the poor, now in turn comes with all its power (hand) on him. This caused his "straitened" feeling even in prosperity.
23When 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.
23. Rather, "God shall cast (may God send) [Umbreit] upon him the fury of His wrath to fill his belly!"
while ... eating--rather, "shall rain it upon him for his food!" Fiery rain, that is, lightning (Psa 11:6; alluding to Job's misfortune, Job 1:16). The force of the image is felt by picturing to one's self the opposite nature of a refreshing rain in the desert (Ex 16:4; Psa 68:9).
24He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
24. steel--rather, "brass." While the wicked flees from one danger, he falls into a greater one from an opposite quarter [Umbreit].
25It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.
25. It is drawn--Rather, "He (God) draweth (the sword, Jos 5:13) and (no sooner has He done so, than) it cometh out of (that is, passes right through) the (sinner's) body" (De 32:41, 42; Eze 21:9, 10). The glittering sword is a happy image for lightning.
gall--that is, his life (Job 16:13). "Inflicts a deadly wound."
terrors--Zophar repeats Bildad's words (Job 17:11; Psa 88:16; 55:4).
26All 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.
26. All darkness--that is, every calamity that befalls the wicked shall be hid (in store for him) in His (God's) secret places, or treasures (Jude 13; De 32:34).
not blown--not kindled by man's hands, but by God's (Is 30:33; the Septuagint in the Alexandrian Manuscript reads "unquenchable fire," Mt 3:12). Tact is shown by the friends in not expressly mentioning, but alluding under color of general cases, to Job's calamities; here (Job 1:16) Umbreit explains it, wickedness, is a "self-igniting fire"; in it lie the principles of destruction.
ill ... tabernacle--Every trace of the sinner must be obliterated (Job 18:15).
27The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
27. All creation is at enmity with him, and proclaims his guilt, which he would fain conceal.
28The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
28. increase--prosperity. Ill got--ill gone.
flow away--like waters that run dry in summer; using Job's own metaphor against himself (Job 6:15-17; 2Sa 14:14; Mi 1:4).
his wrath--God's.
29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.
29. appointed--not as a matter of chance, but by the divine "decree" (Margin) and settled principle.