Job

Job 20

29 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

2“Therefore my thoughts answer me, even by reason of my haste that is in me. 3I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me. 4Don’t you know this from old time, since man was placed on earth, 5that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment? 6Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, 7yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ 8He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night. 9The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more. 10His children will seek the favor of the poor. His hands will give back his wealth. 11His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust.
12“Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, 13though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth; 14yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him. 15He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly. 16He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him. 17He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter. 18He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten. 19For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up.
20“Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights. 21There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure. 22In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him. 23When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating. 24He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through. 25He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him. 26All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent. 27The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him. 28The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath. 29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”

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What others are saying

4 commentators · 63 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17143

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–9

Here, I. Zophar begins very passionately, and seems to be in a great heat at what Job had said. Being resolved to condemn Job for a bad man, he was much displeased that he talked so like a good man, and, as it should seem, broke in upon him, and began…

v. 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…

v. 23–29

Zophar, having described the many embarrassments and vexations which commonly attend the wicked practices of oppressors and cruel men, here comes to show their utter ruin at last. I. Their ruin will take its rise from God's wrath and vengeance, Job 20:23. The…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176329

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite,.... Notwithstanding the sad distressed condition Job was in, an account of which is given in the preceding chapter, enough to pierce a heart of stone, notwithstanding his earnest request to his friends to have pity on him…

v. 2

Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer,.... Or "to return" (a) and appear upon the stage again, and enter the lists once more with his antagonist; he suggests as if he had intended to have said no more in this controversy, but observing what Job had said…

v. 3

I have heard the check of my reproach,.... He took it that Job had reproached him and his friends, by representing them as hardhearted men, and persecuting him wrongly in a violent manner; and he had observed the "check" or reproof given for it, by bidding…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–18756

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 1–5

1 Then began Zophar the Naamathite, and said: 2 Therefore do my thoughts furnish me with a reply, And indeed by reason of my feeling within me. 3 The correction of my reproach I must hear, Nevertheless the spirit of my understanding informeth me. 4 Knowest…

v. 6–11

6 If his aspiration riseth to the heavens, And he causeth his head to touch the clouds: 7 Like his dung he perisheth for ever; Those who see him say: Where is he? 8 As a dream he flieth away, and they cannot find him; And he is scared away as a vision of the…

v. 12–16

12 If wickedness tasted sweet in his mouth, He hid it under his tongue; 13 He carefully cherished it and did not let it go, And retained it in his palate: 14 His bread is now changed in his bowels, It is the gall of vipers within him. 15 He hath swallowed…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187125

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 3–4

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…

v. 5

the hypocrite--literally, "the ungodly" (Psa 37:35-36).

v. 6

(Isa 14:13; Oba 1:3-4).

World English Bible — Public domain