The Book of Job
Job 20
Chapter XX · Vol. II, pp. 962–963
Zophar showeth in his turn the certain downfal and portion of the wicked.
1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
3 I have bheard the check of my reproach, and cthe spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
b 2 Ti.4.3. ch.19.29.
c ch.33.3.
5 Thate the triumphing of the wicked is short,2 and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
e Ps.37.35,36; 73.18-20. Da.4.31. Ac.12.22,23. Ec.7.6. Mat.7.21.
2 Heb. from near.
6 Though his excellency fmount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;3
f Ge.11.4. Is.14.13,14. Da.4.11. Ps.37.35,36. Mat.11.23.
3 Heb. cloud.
7 Yet ghe shall perish for ever, like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, hWhere is he?
8 He ishall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
9 The keye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
k ch.7.8,10; 8.18. Ps.103.15,16.
11 His nbones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
n Pr.5.11-14; 14.32. Ps.25.7. ch.13.26. Eze.24.13; 32.27.
13 Though he pspare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth;6
p Je.13.23, with Mat.5.29,30. Ro.8.13. Pr.28.13.
6 Heb. in the midst of his palate.
14 Yet qhis meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall7 of asps within him.
q Je.2.19; 4.18; 6.26. Mat.26.75. Pr.1.32; 14.14; 23.31-35.
7 It is translated gall, because that fluid was anciently supposed to be the poison, as Pliny testifies. Anatomy, however, has discovered that the poison lies beneath some of the teeth; and poison should therefore be substituted for gall.—C.
15 He hath swallowed down riches, and rhe shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
r Pr.23.8. Mat.27.3,4. ver.10,18.
17 He tshall not see the rivers, the 8floods, the brooks9 of honey and butter.
t 2 Ki.7.2. Je.17.6. Ps.36.6,8,9. Is.48.18.
8 Or, streaming brooks.
9 Boothroyd translates it valleys, which renders the passage more easily intelligible. He shall not see those rivers, those floods of pleasure, nor those valleys of rich possession for which he laid aside all compassion, and foolishly bartered his soul. See ver. 19.—C.
18 That uwhich he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution1 be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
19 Becausex he hath oppressed2 and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
x Pr.22.22,23. Mat.5.42. Ja.2.13. Mi.2.2.
2 Heb. crushed.
20 Surelyy he shall not feel3 quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
y Ec.5.13,14. Lu.12.20. ch.1.13-19,21.
3 Heb. know.
22 Ina the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the bwicked shall come upon him.
23 When che 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.
c Nu.11.33. Ps.78.30,31; 11.6. ch.1.13-19. Ge.19.24. De.32.34,35. Lu.17.28,29.
24 Hed shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
d Pr.5.22. Is.24.18. Je.48.43,44. Am.5.19; 9.1-3.
25 Ite is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall:6 terrors are upon him.
e De.32.41. ch.16.13; 18.11. Ju.3.21,22. Ps.73.19.
6 Having therefore penetrated the liver to which the gall-cyst is attached, and rendered recovery hopeless.—C.
26 All fdarkness7 shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown8 shall consume him; it shallg go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.
f ch.18.5,6. Is.8.22; 30.33. Jude 13. De.32.34,35. Mat.3.12; 8.12. Ps.21.9.
7 Every horror treasured up in reserve for him.—M. Good.
8 The internal fire of a guilty and accusing conscience.—C.
A.M. cir. 2484. B.C. cir. 1520.
g Ex.20.5. Ps.109.9-15. Is.14.21,22. ch.18.19.
28 Thei increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his kwrath.
i Re.18.14. 2 Ki.20.17. ch.5.5.
k ver.23; ch.5.2. De.29.20,21.
Notes
Interrupting Job, Zophar the Naamathite in no small fury replied, 2. My thoughts make me burn and swell with matter of refutation, and oblige me to answer; therefore, highly provoked with thy speech, I make haste to the dispute, as a person fully prepared. 3. I have indeed heard a most reproachful answer to my own and my friend's former speeches, but my heart enables me to answer in the most prudent and considerate manner. 4, 5. Knowest thou not, that all along from the creation the prosperity of a wicked man and hypocrite has been very short-lived and momentary. 6. Though his high-towering excellency mount up to heaven, and his temporal honours and happiness be advanced to the highest pitch, 7-9. He shall quickly perish in the most disgraceful and contemptible manner, without any hope of recovery. 10. His children, in their wretchedness, shall court the favour of the meanest, or attempt to satisfy them for the wrongs done to them by their father; and the works of his hands shall render him sorrow for his reward. 11. His youthful and secret wickedness shall bring such distempers upon him as shall hasten him to his grave, and shall attend him to hell. 12-14. If he with great fondness and pleasure indulged himself in his wickedness, it shall prove most bitter, unwholesome, painful, and destructive to him in the fearful miseries attending it. 15. The riches which he has greedily and unjustly got into his possession, he shall be forced to restore with great shame and torment. God shall so torment him with trouble and anguish of mind that he shall be sick of them. 16. That which he has been so eager in getting shall bring upon him the most terrible, painful, and destructive judgments. 17. Never shall he enjoy the least real comfort in all his plenty of outward things. 18. He shall be obliged to restore the hire which he unjustly withheld; nay, even what he laboured for shall be cursed to him, and quickly lost along with his unjust gain; and he shall have no comfort in anything he has. 19. Because he furiously oppressed the poor till he rendered them destitute, and violently seized houses which he built not. 20. Therefore shall he have no solid satisfaction in his own mind, but be in pain, as a travailing woman; and shall be deprived of all his desirable things. 21. He shall scarcely have wherewith to sustain himself in life, and shall have no goods left for any to look after. 22. In the very height of his prosperity he shall be terribly distressed; and even his fellows in impiety shall concur to render him miserable. 23. Whenever he shall attempt to satisfy himself in what he has, some extraordinary judgment shall of a sudden overtake him. 24. When he shall attempt to avoid one danger, another more dreadful shall overtake him; 25. And terribly shall the judgments of God torment and destroy him. Horrors of conscience shall seize upon him, as one who cannot live, and who dares not die. 26. Every kind of fearful calamities shall be reserved for him as his treasure, and shall follow him wherever he thinks to hide himself. Some awful judgment, which comes none knows how, shall consume him. His posterity and family shall, for his sake, be cursed of God, and entirely wasted and ruined. 27. God, by remarkable judgments of thunder, lightning, or the like, shall discover his notorious wickedness; and all creatures on earth shall exert themselves for his ruin. 28. His estate, which he had got by the labour of his family, shall quickly be taken from him, or destroyed, in the day when God manifests his wrath against him. 29. This is the portion and reward which God has allotted to impious and insolent sinners.
Ver. 16. [The pethen and epheh are the two serpents mentioned; most probably the bætan and effah of the Arabians, both remarkable for the rapid and fatal effects of their poison. C.]
Reflections.—Alas! the most confident and forward in a dispute are seldom in the right: and with such the kindest warning is interpreted into an affront, and returned with insolence; and the dictates of passion pass for the arguments of reason. The truths of God are often, as here, excellently explained, but miserably applied. Short-lived is a wicked man's prosperity and a hypocrite's profession. If not in this life, sin and ruin shall in the next appear certainly inseparable. And the higher men tower in sinful prosperity, their fall into the pit of destruction shall be the more dreadful. What terrible consequences have the often unthought-of sins of youth! Bitter are the issues of those sins which are reckoned sweet; and inexpressible the loss of those which are reckoned gainful. Where God's curse lies there can be no real felicity. But dreadful shall it be to the wicked when all their dreams of happiness shall be disappointed, their secret sins revealed, and the wrath of God shall take an everlasting hold of them! Let the sound of destruction—terrible destruction—everlasting destruction, that is in my ears, drive me to Jesus Christ, and the everlasting redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of my sins, according to the riches of his grace.