Chapter Twenty

Zophar’s response to Job’s speech in the second dialogue. 1–3. Introduction. 4–11. General principle of the instability and transience of the wicked’s happiness. 12–29. Description of the destruction of the godless.

Job 20:2. My thoughts compel me to answer, and I hasten to express them. Job 20:3. I heard a reproach that brought shame to me, and the spirit of my understanding answers for me. Zophar is prompted to speak by the reproach of Job, which dishonors him and agitates him, accusing him of lack of wisdom (Job 12:2 and following; cf. Job 18:8).

Job 20:4. Do you not know that from of old, from the time man was placed on earth, Job 20:5. the joy of the wicked is brief, and the happiness of the hypocrite momentary? The law of moral retribution, rejected by Job, according to which the prosperity of the wicked is fleeting, is as ancient as “man” himself, the human race (Heb. adam not in the sense of the proper name of the first man, but in the sense of mankind—Deut 4:32).

Job 20:6. Though his height reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, Job 20:7. like his dung he perishes forever; those who saw him will say: where is he? However mighty and grand the wicked person may be at first (v. 6, cf. Isa 14:13-15), in the end he perishes with shame—he perishes like dung (cf. 2 Sam 9:37; Jer 8:2), and such destruction bewilders those around him (v. 7, cf. Isa 14:9-12).

Job 20:8. Like a dream, he flees away and is not found; like a night vision, he vanishes. Job 20:9. The eye that saw him will not see him again, and his place will behold him no more. The prosperity of the wicked has neither permanence nor reality: like dreams, it is—a fleeting fantasy (Ps 72:20; Isa 29:8), and it leaves no trace behind (v. 9; cf. Job 7:8-10; Ps 36:35-36).

Job 20:10. His sons will seek favor from the poor, and his hands will return what he seized. Such a fate befalls not only the wicked man himself but also his descendants. Since the wealth acquired by wicked means will pass into the hands of others (cf. v. 18), the children of the sinner will be brought to such poverty that they will seek favor from those who are as poor as themselves.

Job 20:11. His bones are full of the sins of his youth, and they will lie with him in the dust. The expression in the Synodal text: “the sins of his youth” represents the translation of one Hebrew word “alumav.” In Ps 18:13 and Ps 89:8 “alum” indeed means “secret sins,” but in the Book of Job, Job 33:25—“youth.” According to the latter meaning verse 11 should read: “his bones are full of the vigor of his youth, and they will lie with him in the dust.” The personal strength on which the wicked relied, by which he created his prosperity, comes to nothing and does not secure his happiness.

Job 20:12. If wickedness is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue, Job 20:13. and he keeps it and does not abandon it, but holds it in his mouth, Job 20:14. then this food of his will turn to venom of asps within him. The law of retribution is as ancient as mankind itself (vv. 4–5) and at the same time wholly natural. Sin and lawlessness themselves bring about retribution. Pleasant at first, like savory food, which for the sake of continuing the taste is not swallowed at once but deliberately held in the mouth, they ultimately become, like it, harmful bitterness—“the venom of an asp” (bitter and poisonous—concepts that are synonymous—Deut 32:32).

Job 20:15. The wealth he swallows, he vomits forth: God will extract it from his belly. Job 20:16. The venom of serpents he sucks; the tongue of the viper will slay him. Since it contains poison, the food of the wicked (the wealth he acquires) will not only fail to benefit him (“he will vomit”), but will prove torturous (“God will extract”), and as a result deadly (v. 16; cf. Ps 139:4; Prov 23:32; Jer 8:14; Jer 23:15). Job 20:17-21. An explanation of the figurative speech of the preceding verses, in particular v. 15: “he will vomit,” “God will extract.”

Job 20:17. He will not see the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and milk! Job 20:18. What he toiled for he will return and not devour; according to the measure of his wealth will be his requital, and he will not rejoice. The wicked cannot enjoy his pleasant food—the accumulated wealth (v. 17; cf. Exod 3:8). He will not benefit from what he has gained (“will not devour”), because it will return (“he will vomit”) to its original owners—it will go to satisfy those he wronged: “according to the measure of his wealth will be his requital.” Wealth will not serve as a source of joy (“will not rejoice,” cf. Job 31:25).

Job 20:19. For he oppressed, he drove away the poor; he seized houses that he did not build; Job 20:20. he never knew satiation in his belly, and in his greed spared nothing. Job 20:21. Nothing escaped his gluttony, so his happiness will not endure. The reason for this lies in the unlawful character of the wicked person’s acquisitions. Prosperity created through the oppression of the poor, the seizure of another’s property, which knew no bounds of greed, cannot be stable: “so his happiness will not endure” (v. 21; cf. Isa 5:8-9; Prov 10:2; Sir 5:10; Ezek 7:19).

Job 20:22. In the fullness of abundance he will be in straits; every hand of the wronged will rise against him. Insatiable greed, gluttony (vv. 20–21) will not only fail to secure the prosperity of the wicked, but will increase the number of misfortunes that accompany its loss. The multiplication of goods is accompanied by an increase in the number of the wronged. And all of them will raise their hands against their former oppressor, avenge themselves on him through, perhaps, forcible seizure of his property. He who oppressed others now experiences the weight of oppression himself. Thus the food of the wicked becomes for him a source of torment (“God will extract”). Job 20:23-25. The misfortunes that befall the evildoer are not limited to the loss of property (v. 18). His lot is inevitable death at the hand of God.

Job 20:23. When he has filled his belly, God will send upon him the fury of His wrath and will rain upon him His blows in his flesh. The Synodal text contains a word in excess of the original: “blows.” But even with the omission of the latter, scholars interpret this verse differently depending on how to translate the Hebrew expression “bilhmo” (from “lechem”). Occurring in the Bible only one other time (Zeph 1:17), it is derived from “lakham”—“to eat”—and is understood in the sense of “food,” and then, like the related Arabic “lachum,”—flesh. Accordingly, some translate the end of this verse thus: “God will rain upon him (disasters) as his food (“bilhmo”).” The rain of divine punishments, expressing “the fury of divine wrath” (cf. Lam 1:13), will become food for the sinner (cf. Job 9:18; Jer 9:15). Insatiable in his greed (v. 20), he will be satiated with misfortunes. Others, holding to the translation “will rain upon his flesh,” see here an indication that the Lord will rain upon the sinner a fiery rain that will consume his body (Keil).

Job 20:24. If he escapes the iron weapon, the bronze bow will pierce him; Job 20:25. when he pulls out the arrow, it will come forth from his body, it will come out gleaming through his bile; terrors of death find him! The destruction of the wicked is inevitable. Trying to escape one danger, he exposes himself to another (cf. Isa 24:18; Jer 48:44; Amos 5:19), and this latter strikes him to death, like an arrow piercing the inner organs of a man (v. 25; cf. Judg 3:22).

Job 20:26. All darkness is stored up for him; a fire not blown by man will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed. Instead of the expression “within him” in accordance with the Hebrew “litsuneav” it should say “for his treasures” (cf. Ps 16:14). The wicked man becomes rich and gathers treasures not for God, and therefore their fate is destruction (cf. Jas 5:3). They are consumed by fire “not blown by man,”—fire that does not require human efforts to appear and sustain it, the fire of God (Job 1:16). It destroys also what survived and escaped in the tent of the wicked from the hands of avengers (18, 22).

Job 20:27. Heaven will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him. Job 20:28. His possessions will vanish; all will be swept away in the day of His wrath. The wicked person portrayed by Zophar is such a moral monster that even the visible, inanimate nature cannot bear him. Its two principal spheres, called upon by Job to witness his innocence (Job 16:18-19), unite to avenge the evildoer (29, cf. Job 18:21).