Job 20
Zophar Rebukes Job and States the Principle 1–3
The Triumph of the Wicked Is Short 4–11
Wickedness Turns to Poison 12–22
God's Sudden Judgment on the Wicked 23–29
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Job 20
Verse 1
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite — Zophar speaks here for the second and last time. He spoke first at 11:1, and he is not among the speakers of the third round. The three friends are named together in 2:11 and again in 42:9, where they ‘did according as the LORD commanded them’.
Verse 3
the check of my reproach — ‘Check’ is musar, correction or discipline, the word of 12:18 (‘bond’). Zophar says he has heard a rebuke aimed at him and that ‘the spirit of my understanding’ (ruach binah) moves him to answer. In v.2 he had said ‘my thoughts cause me to answer’, and the haste follows from it.
Verse 4
since man was placed upon earth — Zophar sends Job back to the beginning, as Bildad sent him to ‘the former age’ (8:8). ‘Placed’ is sum, a verb of setting down: ‘there he put the man whom he had formed’ (Gen 2:8). His claim is that wicked men have always fallen quickly. Job answers in 21:7.
Verse 5
the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment — ‘Hypocrite’ is chaneph, the godless. ‘Moment’ is rega, the time of a wink. The psalmist saw ‘the wicked in great power’ and then ‘he passed away, and, lo, he was not’ (Ps 37:35–36). Job answers that ‘the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power’ (21:7).
Verse 7
like his own dung — Gelel is dung, in the form of balls. The LORD uses a like picture of Jeroboam’s house: ‘as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone’ (1 Kgs 14:10). ‘Where is he?’ (ay) is what those who saw him ask, as in Ps 37:36, ‘I sought him, but he could not be found’.
Verse 10
His children shall seek to please the poor — ‘Seek to please’ (ratsah) also means to pay off a debt. The ‘poor’ (dal) are those the man took from, and ‘goods’ (on) is wealth. The pattern of restoring what was taken is in the law: ‘four sheep for a sheep’ (Exod 22:1), and Zacchaeus: ‘I restore him fourfold’ (Luke 19:8).
Verse 11
His bones are full of the sin of his youth — The Hebrew has only alumim, youth or vigour, and the KJV supplies ‘the sin of’. It lies in his bones and goes down with him ‘in the dust’. Job speaks of ‘the iniquities of my youth’ in 13:26, and the psalmist asks, ‘Remember not the sins of my youth’ (Ps 25:7). Job replies in 21:26: ‘They shall lie down alike in the dust’.
Verse 12
Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth — Mathaq is to taste sweet, and ‘hide’ (kachad) is to keep out of sight under the tongue, where ‘mischief and vanity’ lie (Ps 10:7). The sweetness is brief: ‘Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant’ (Prov 9:17). In v.14 the food turns in his bowels to ‘the gall of asps’.
Verse 15
he shall vomit them up again — Bala is to gulp down, and ‘riches’ (chayil) can also mean strength or an army. The same verb for vomiting is used of the land in Lev 18:25: ‘the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants’. ‘God shall cast them out of his belly’ says that what he took he cannot keep.
Verse 17
the rivers… of honey and butter — Three words for streams (pelaggah, channel; nahar, river; nachal, brook) give the picture of plenty. Honey and butter are among the land’s gifts in Deut 32:13–14. Job described his own former days in like terms: ‘the rock poured me out rivers of oil’ (29:6).
Verse 19
he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor — ‘Oppressed’ is ratsats, to crush, and ‘taken away’ is gazal, to rob. ‘He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker’ (Prov 14:31). The ‘house which he builded not’ is what he seized: Isaiah pronounces woe on those ‘that join house to house’ (Isa 5:8).
Verse 22
In the fulness of his sufficiency — Sepheq is satiety or enough. At the point of having enough, he is ‘in straits’, the verb yatsar of 18:7 (‘straitened’). In the parable the rich man who had stored his goods is told, ‘Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee’ (Luke 12:20).
Verse 23
shall rain it upon him while he is eating — ‘Rain’ is matar, the verb of Ps 11:6, ‘Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone’. Israel in the wilderness met this at a meal: ‘while the flesh was yet between their teeth… the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people’ (Num 11:33).
Verse 26
a fire not blown — Fire that no one kindles, like ‘the fire of God’ that fell ‘from heaven’ on Job’s sheep (1:16). ‘Hid in his secret places’ is tsaphan, to treasure up. ‘Left’ is sarid, a survivor, the word of 18:19 (‘remaining’).
Verse 27
The heaven shall reveal his iniquity — Galah is to uncover. Heaven and earth are called as witnesses elsewhere: Moses calls ‘heaven and earth to record against them’ (Deut 31:28), and ‘the earth also shall disclose her blood’ (Isa 26:21). Job had asked, ‘O earth, cover not thou my blood’ (16:18).
Verse 29
the heritage appointed unto him by God — ‘Portion’ is cheleq and ‘heritage’ is nachalah, the words for an allotted share of land. ‘Appointed’ is emer, what God has said, so the heritage is literally ‘of his word’. Job repeats the line as his own in 27:13: ‘This is the portion of a wicked man with God’.