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Commentary on Job 20 verses 10–22
The instances here given of the miserable condition of the wicked man in this world are expressed with great fulness and fluency of language, and the same thing returned to again and repeated in other words. Let us therefore reduce the particulars to their proper heads, and observe,
I. What his wickedness is for which he is punished.
1.The lusts of the flesh, here called the sins of his youth (Job 20:11); for those are the sins which, at that age, people are most tempted to. The forbidden pleasures of sense are said to be sweet in his mouth (Job 20:12); he indulges himself in all the gratifications of the carnal appetite, and takes an inordinate complacency in them, as yielding the most agreeable delights. That is the satisfaction which he hides under his tongue, and rolls there, as the most dainty delicate thing that can be. He keeps it still within his mouth (Job 20:13); let him have that, and he desires no more; he will never part with that for the spiritual and divine pleasures of religion, which he has no relish or nor affection for. His keeping it still in his mouth denotes his obstinately persisting in his sin (he spares it when he should kill and mortify it, and forsakes it not, but holds it fast, and goes on frowardly in it), and also his re-acting of his sin by revolving it and remembering it with pleasure, as that adulterous woman (Eze 23:19) who multiplied her whoredoms by calling to remembrance the days of her youth; so does this wicked man here. Or his hiding it and keeping it under his tongue denotes his industrious concealment of his beloved lust. Being a hypocrite, his haunts of sin are secret, that he may save the credit of his profession; but he who knows what is in the heart knows what is under the tongue too, and will discover it shortly.
2.The love of the world and the wealth of it. It is in worldly wealth that he places his happiness, and therefore he sets his heart upon it. See here, (1.) How greedy he is of it (Job 20:15): He has swallowed down riches as eagerly as ever a hungry man swallowed down meat; and is still crying, "Give, give." It is that which he desired (Job 20:20); it was, in his eye, the best gift, and that which he coveted earnestly. (2.) What pains he takes for it: It is that which he laboured for (Job 20:18), not by honest diligence in a lawful calling, but by an unwearied prosecution of all ways and methods, per fas, per nefas - right or wrong, to be rich. We must labour, not to be rich (Pro 23:4), but to be charitable, that we may have to give (Eph 4:28), not to spend. (3.) What great things he promises himself from it, intimated in the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter (Job 20:17); his being disappointed of them supposes that he had flattered himself with the hopes of them: he expected rivers of sensual delights.
3.Violence and oppression, and injustice in his poor neighbours, Job 20:19. This was the sin of the giants of the old world, and a sin that, as much as any, brings God's judgments upon nations and families. It is charged upon this wicked man, (1.) That he has forsaken the poor, taken no care of them, shown no kindness to them, nor made any provision for them. At first perhaps, for a pretence, he gave alms like the Pharisees, to gain a reputation; but, when he had served his turn by this practice, he left it off, and forsook the poor, whom before he seemed to be concerned for. Those who do good, but not from a good principle, though they may abound in it, will not abide in it. (2.) That he has oppressed them, crushed them, taken all advantages against them to do them a mischief. To enrich himself, he has robbed the spital, and made the poor poorer. (3.) That he has violently taken away their houses, which he had no right to, as Ahab took Naboth's vineyard, not by secret fraud, by forgery, perjury, or some trick in law, but avowedly, and by open violence.
II. What his punishment is for this wickedness.
1.He shall be disappointed in his expectations, and shall not find that satisfaction in his worldly wealth which he vainly promised himself (Job 20:17): He shall never see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter, with which he hoped to glut himself. The world is not that to those who love it, and court it, and admire it, which they fancy it will be. The enjoyment sinks far below the raised expectation.
2.He shall be diseased and distempered in his body; and how little comfort a man has in riches if he has not health! Sickness and pain, especially it they be in extremity, embitter all his enjoyments. This wicked man has all the delights of sense wound up to the height of pleasurableness; but what real happiness can he enjoy when his bones are full of the sins of his youth (Job 20:11), that is, of the effects of those sins? By his drunkenness and gluttony, his uncleanness and wantonness, when he was young, he contracted those diseases which are painful to him long after, and perhaps make his life very miserable, and, as Solomon speaks, consume his flesh and his body, Pro 5:11. Perhaps he was given to fight when he was young, and then made nothing of a cut or a bruise in a fray; but he feels it in his bones long after. But can he get no ease, no relief? No, he is likely to carry his pains and diseases with him to the grave, or rather they are likely to carry him thither, and so the sins of his youth shall lie down with him in the dust; the very putrefying of his body in the grave is to him the effect of sin (Job 24:19), so that his iniquity is upon his bones there, Eze 32:27. The sin of sinners follows them to the other side death.
3.He shall be disquieted and troubled in his mind: Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, Job 20:20. He has not that ease in his own mind that people think he has, but is in continual agitation. The ill-gotten wealth which he has swallowed down makes him sick, and, like undigested meat, is always upbraiding him. Let none expect to enjoy that comfortably which they have gotten unjustly. The unquietness of his mind arises, (1.) From his conscience looking back, and filling him with the fear of the wrath of God against him for his wickedness. Even that wickedness which was sweet in the commission, and was rolled under the tongue as a delicate morsel, becomes bitter in the reflection, and, when it is reviewed, fills him with horror and vexation. In his bowels it is turned (Job 20:14) like John's book, in his mouth as sweet as honey, but, when he had eaten it, his belly was bitter, Rev 10:10. Such a thing is sin; it is turned into the gall of asps, than which nothing is more bitter, the poison of asps (Job 20:16), than which nothing more fatal, and so it will be to him; what he sucked so sweetly, and with so much pleasure, will prove to him the poison of asps; so will all unlawful gains be. The fawning tongue will prove the viper's tongue. All the charming graces that are thought to be in sin will, when conscience is awakened, turn into so many raging furies. (2.) From his cares, looking forward, Job 20:22. In the fulness of his sufficiency, when he thinks himself most happy, and most sure of the continuance of his happiness, he shall be in straits, that is, he shall think himself so, through the anxieties and perplexities of his own mind, as that rich man who, when his ground brought forth plentifully, cried out, What shall I do? Luk 12:17.
4.He shall be dispossessed of his estate; that shall sink and dwindle away to nothing, so that he shall not rejoice therein, Job 20:18. He shall not only never rejoice truly, but not long rejoice at all. (1.) What he has unjustly swallowed he shall be compelled to disgorge (Job 20:15): He swallowed down riches, and then thought himself sure of them, and that they were as much his own as the meat he had eaten; but he was deceived: he shall vomit them up again; his own conscience perhaps may make him so uneasy in the keeping of what he has gotten that, for the quiet of his own mind, he shall make restitution, and that not with the pleasure of a virtue, but the pain of a vomit, and with the utmost reluctancy. Or, if he do not himself refund what he has violently taken away, God will, by his providence, force him to it, and bring it about, one way or other, that ill-gotten goods shall return to the right owners: God shall cast them out of his belly, while yet the love of the sin is not cast out of his heart. So loud shall the clamours of the poor, whom he has impoverished, be against him, that he shall be forced to send his children to them to soothe them and beg their pardon (Job 20:10): His children shall seek to please the poor, while his own hands shall restore them their goods with shame (Job 20:18): That which he laboured for, by all the arts of oppression, shall he restore, and shall not so swallow it down as to digest it; it shall not stay with him, but according to his shame shall the restitution be; having gotten a great deal unjustly, he shall restore a great deal, so that when every one has his own he will have but little left for himself. To be made to restore what was unjustly gotten, by the sanctifying grace of God, as Zaccheus was, is a great mercy; he voluntarily and cheerfully restored four-fold, and yet had a great deal left to give to the poor, Luk 19:8. But to be forced to restore, as Judas was, merely by the horrors of a despairing conscience, has none of that benefit and comfort attending it, for he threw down the pieces of silver and went and hanged himself. (2.) He shall be stripped of all he has and become a beggar. He that spoiled others shall himself be spoiled (Isa 33:1); for every hand of the wicked shall be upon him. The innocent, whom he has wronged, sit down by their loss, saying, as David, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, but my hand shall not be upon him, Sa1 24:13. But though they have forgiven him, though they will make no reprisals, divine justice will, and often makes the wicked to avenge the quarrel of the righteous, and squeezes and crushes one bad man by the hand of another upon him. Thus, when he is plucked on all sides, he shall not save of that which he desired (Job 20:20), not only he shall not save it all, but he shall save nothing of it. There shall none of his meat (which he coveted so much, and fed upon with so much pleasure) be left, Job 20:21. All his neighbours and relations shall look upon him to be in such bad circumstances that, when he is dead, no man shall look for his goods, none of his kindred shall expect to be a penny the better for him, nor be willing to take out letters of administration for what he leaves behind him. In all this Zophar reflects upon Job, who had lost all and was reduced to the last extremity.
11. The origin of a bad beginning by preoccupying further multiplies the causes of sin. For when a man has begun to do evil, by custom he now grows to a worse height in that which he had begun. What then is the ‘youth’ of this hypocrite, but the beginning of wickedness, since in youth passion now begins to kindle? And the hypocrite then has youth, when he begins to long for and to embrace the passion for glory. Which same, whilst the soft salves of flatterers redouble it, they give strength to, and as it were turn it into bones. For what he begins badly, he is daily strengthening for the worse by custom. Therefore let it be said; His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth; in that the rigid habits of evil practices in him are taken from the sin of an ill beginning. Hence it is written in the Proverbs, The young man according to his own way, when he is old, will never depart therefrom. [Prov. 22, 6] Which same ‘bones’ truly ‘will sleep with him in the dust,’ for so long do evil practices endure in him, until they drag him to the dust of death. Since for his ‘bones,’ or evil habits, to ‘sleep with him in the dust’ is for these never to quit him even to the very dust, that is, never to cease from sin even until death. Therefore bad habits, which are once begun, keep hold of him, and daily become more hardened. And they ‘sleep with him in the dust,’ because they are never ended but with his life. But this may be taken in another sense also.
12. For the hypocrite occasionally has something in practice that is strong and vigorous, but whilst he makes believe to have many good points that he is without, he loses even these which he has. Whence it is well said now; His bones shall be full of the sin of his youth. For whereas in his levity and fickleness he does many things like a child, even in strong ones which he may do he is enervated in sin. Which same ‘bones shall sleep with him in the dust,’ because as all that hypocrisy which he carries on is dust, so too whatever he has in him that is strong is robbed of all its solidity, so that by pretension to virtue he loses that also which there might have been in him of a virtuous nature. And so for ‘his bones’ to ‘sleep with him in the dust’ is even if there be things done well, for them to come to nought together with his evil deeds.
“Their bones are full of marrow and will lie down in the dust with them.” By the “marrow” that is inside the bones, the author signifies prosperity. That is, from his former prosperity he will pass to a profound abasement, so that he will not be inferior to the dead.
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SUMMARY
Job 20:11 presents a stark declaration from Zophar the Naamathite, delivered as part of his second discourse, where he vehemently asserts the inevitable and severe consequences awaiting the wicked. He posits that sin, particularly that committed in one's formative years, becomes so deeply ingrained in a person's very being that its effects are inescapable, following them even into death. This verse encapsulates Zophar's rigid retributive theology, which, while containing a general truth about sin's pervasive nature, is ultimately misapplied to Job's innocent suffering within the broader narrative of the book.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Zophar employs powerful Imagery and Metaphor in this verse to convey his message about the wicked. The phrase "His bones are full [of the sin] of his youth" uses the physical structure of bones metaphorically to represent the deepest core of a person's being, suggesting that sin has permeated their very essence, not just their outward actions. This creates a vivid picture of deep-seated, internal corruption. The subsequent image, "which shall lie down with him in the dust," is a stark Metaphor for death and the grave, emphasizing the inescapable and lasting nature of the consequences of sin, which follow the individual even beyond life. Zophar's speech, including this verse, is characterized by Retributive Language, reflecting the friends' unwavering belief in immediate and direct divine punishment for sin, which they apply with Hyperbole to underscore the severity and certainty of the wicked's fate.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Zophar's assertion in Job 20:11, while ultimately misapplied to Job's situation, highlights a profound theological truth about the nature of sin: its pervasive, corrupting power and its inevitable, far-reaching consequences. It challenges any superficial understanding of sin, emphasizing its capacity to become deeply ingrained in one's character, affecting the very core of being from an early age. This verse speaks to the enduring impact of moral choices and the reality of divine justice, even if Zophar's understanding of its precise application was limited and flawed. It underscores that sin is not merely an external act but can become an internal disposition with lasting repercussions.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
While Zophar's specific accusation against Job was unjust and his theology incomplete, Job 20:11 serves as a potent warning about the insidious and deeply impactful nature of sin. It reminds us that sin is not merely an external act but can become a deeply ingrained disposition, permeating our character from our formative years. This verse prompts us to consider the long-term impact of our choices and the profound consequences that unaddressed sin can carry, even unto death. It underscores the vital importance of introspection, confession, and genuine repentance, recognizing that true transformation requires God's intervention to cleanse and renew the very core of our being. This call to self-examination encourages us to confront any deeply rooted patterns of sin, knowing that only through God's grace can we be truly liberated from their pervasive influence and lasting effects.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does this verse mean that all suffering is a direct result of personal sin, especially youthful sin?
Answer: No, not necessarily. While Zophar, like Job's other friends, operates under a rigid retributive theology that posits a direct correlation between sin and suffering, the broader narrative of the Book of Job ultimately refutes this simplistic view. Job's suffering is not a consequence of his sin, but part of God's sovereign plan, challenging easy answers to the problem of suffering. This verse reflects Zophar's flawed perspective, though it does contain a general truth about the pervasive nature and consequences of sin. It's crucial to interpret it within the context of the entire book, which culminates in God's rebuke of the friends for not speaking rightly about Him, as seen in Job 42:7-8.
What does "His bones are full [of the sin] of his youth" truly imply about the nature of sin?
Answer: This phrase implies that sin is not superficial but can become deeply ingrained in a person's very being. The Hebrew word for "bones" ('etsem) often refers to the core essence, strength, or inner constitution of an individual. Therefore, to be "full" of sin in one's bones suggests a pervasive moral corruption that has permeated the inner person, often originating from formative years. It highlights sin's capacity to shape character and disposition, not just external actions. This deep-seated corruption is contrasted with the transformative power of God's grace, which can renew the inner person and make them a new creation, as described in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Job 20:11 speaks of the pervasive and inescapable consequences of sin, particularly as it becomes ingrained from youth, its ultimate fulfillment and resolution are found in Jesus Christ. Humanity, indeed, is born with a nature "full of sin" from its earliest days, inherited from Adam, as Psalm 51:5 and Romans 5:12 attest. This inherited corruption leads inevitably to spiritual death and separation from God. However, Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, was utterly without sin, never having "bones full of the sin of his youth." He willingly took upon Himself the full weight of humanity's ingrained sin and its inescapable consequences, "lie[ing] down with him in the dust" through His death on the cross. Yet, unlike the wicked described by Zophar, Christ did not remain in the dust. His glorious resurrection from the dead, as celebrated in 1 Corinthians 15:20-22, demonstrates His triumph over sin and death, breaking their power. For those who believe in Him, the deep-seated sin that once permeated their being is cleansed by His blood, and they are made new creations, no longer defined by their past transgressions but by His righteousness, as promised in 2 Corinthians 5:17. In Christ, the grim fate described by Zophar is reversed, offering not inevitable judgment but eternal life and profound transformation for all who trust in Him.