Jobchapter 20
29 verses · unknown · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.
Introduction
unknown, Wisdom and poetry, Job Overview.
Zophar the Naamathite speaks for the second and last time. He says Job's rebuke has stung him, and he answers with the harshest portrait of the wicked in the debate. His hearers knew snakes whose poison could kill, and they had seen a rich man's goods divided after his fall. Listen for the picture of food that turns bitter inside the man who ate it. Listen also for what Zophar leaves out, since he has just heard Job's confession of a living Redeemer. After this speech Zophar is not heard again.
Context
- Who
- Hearers who had watched a rich man's estate broken up after his death
- What
- Zophar's second speech, a portrait of the wicked man whose joy is short and whose riches turn to poison in him.
- Where
- The ash heap outside Job's town.
- When
- The second round of speeches, Zophar's second and final speech.
- Why
- To warn Job that ill-gotten gain is always taken back and that the wicked always fall.
Historical context
Zophar admits he is speaking out of stung pride, 'the check of my reproach', and then delivers the harshest of the friends' portraits. His controlling image is food that turns.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Wickedness, he says, is sweet in the mouth, hidden under the tongue, spared and kept, the way a man saves the best morsel. But the food turns in his stomach into the gall of asps; he swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly. Venomous snakes were a constant hazard in that country, and the gall of a viper was the ancient shorthand for poison in the body.
The riches themselves are described in the language of restitution law. He shall restore his labour and not swallow it down; his goods flow away in the day of God's wrath; the increase of his house departs. Anyone who had seen a household broken up and its property distributed after a judgment knew the picture.
The war imagery at the end is technical. He flees from an iron weapon and the bow of bronze strikes him through; the arrow is drawn out of his body and the glittering point comes out of his gall; terrors are upon him. And 'a fire not blown shall consume him' means a fire nobody kindled with bellows, a fire from God rather than from men. Hearers who remembered chapter 1 knew that fire from heaven had already fallen on Job's sheep, and would have felt the cruelty of the line.
Significance
Zophar's answer to 'I know that my redeemer liveth' is that the triumphing of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite lasts a moment. He has heard the most faith-filled sentence in the book and replied with a threat.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
This is the last the hearers hear from Zophar. The friends' argument does not develop any further; it only gets louder, and then it runs out.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's table reads no part of Job as a weekly portion or a Haftarah, and this chapter is no exception. The probe of src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for the book, and festivalReadingForBook printed null.
The corpus files the chapter under Midrash on three Torah portions. Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beshalach 21:1 stands under the seventeenth verse. Midrash Tanchuma at Vayera 7:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber at Vayera 8:1 stand under the twenty-third, and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 7:2 under the twenty-fourth. Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Metzora 10:3 stands under the twenty-eighth. Its Talmud locators sit in Sanhedrin, Arakhin and Chullin, and in the Jerusalem Talmud at Chagigah and Sanhedrin.
How it is read
Malbim, in Malbim's Job, translated by Jeremy I. Pfeffer (Ktav, 2003), which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, heads the chapter "The Twelfth Oration - Zophar’s Speech in the Second Round" (Malbim on Job 20:1:1).
Rashi, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, hears Zophar answer out of a hurt silence. Job has disgraced him, he has kept his peace, and now his thoughts give him a reply (Rashi on Job 20:2:1). At the fourth verse Zophar calls it a wonder that Job does not know how this has gone "throughout all generations since time immemorial" (Rashi on Job 20:4:1).
The triumph of the wicked came only recently and will not last (Rashi on Job 20:5:1). Malbim reads the sixth verse the same way. The wicked man's rise only goes before his fall, and "the higher he is the harder the fall" (Malbim on Job 20:6:1).
Rashi gives the tenth verse a setting. The reply "was stated in reference to the people of Sodom, who were robbers and were cruel to the poor" (Rashi on Job 20:10:1). Robbery of the poor then runs through the rest of Rashi's notes.
The wicked man keeps his evil hidden until its time comes to prosper, and on the day of his misfortune his food turns into the venom of cobras (Rashi on Job 20:12:1 and 20:14:1). The rivers of the seventeenth verse Rashi reads as the flowing rivers of the Garden of Eden (Rashi on Job 20:17:1).
What he labored for is the loot he stole, which he must return (Rashi on Job 20:18:1). After he oppressed the poor he was banished from the world, and they collect their stolen goods from him (Rashi on Job 20:19:1). His stomach is never at rest and always says, "Rob and bring [food] to fill me up" (Rashi on Job 20:20:1). He left nothing of his food to share with the poor (Rashi on Job 20:21:1).
At the twenty-third verse Rashi reads the sending of God's wrath as prophecy of what will come, and he denies that the line is a curse (Rashi on Job 20:23:1). At the twenty-fourth he gives two readings of one word. In the first the arrows of the bow pierce the man's body from one side to the other. In another version the word means that a copper bow shall confront him (Rashi on Job 20:24:1). The first has the arrows go through him, and the second has the bow meet him.
The corpus carries two further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Rashi on Job 20:3:1 and at Metzudat David on Job 20:13:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here by ref alone. On the second verse it holds Vayikra Rabbah 16:3. On the fourth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 8:2 and Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 2:1:12. On the sixth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 21:3, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) at Sanhedrin 1:11 and Yoma 8:25, and Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:31. On the seventh it holds Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 1:13, Midrash Lekach Tov on Esther 5:9:1, Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Abba Guryon 3:2 and Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II 6:22.
On the eleventh verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 18:32, on the twelfth Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 19:20, and on the fourteenth Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 14:5. On the fifteenth it holds Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:2:19, Sanhedrin 106b:9 and Sanhedrin 81b:18. On the seventeenth, where Rashi reads the rivers of Eden, it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 2:8:1, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 41:33:1, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beshalach 21:1 and Midrash Tehillim 23:5.
On the twenty-first verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:15, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 11:13, Sanhedrin 92a:16 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 18:2. On the twenty-second it holds Arakhin 15a:9, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 7:1 and Bamidbar Rabbah 14:6. On the twenty-third it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 8:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 7:1, and on the twenty-fourth Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 7:2.
On the twenty-sixth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 23:5 and 46:3 and Chullin 133a:15. On the twenty-seventh it holds Bereshit Rabbah 4:7, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 4:26:1 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:1:7. On the twenty-eighth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 7:5, Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 14:4:2 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Metzora 10:3. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Job 20:2:1 to 20:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on Job 20:1:1 and 20:6:1, Malbim's Job, trans. Jeremy I. Pfeffer, Ktav, 2003, reported CC-BY; Rashi, Rashi on Job 20:3:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Job 20:13:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/job/20.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Zophar: The Triumphing of the Wicked Is Short
Job 20:1-3
Zophar the Naamathite replied: Zophar opens by saying "my anxious thoughts compel me to answer, because of the turmoil within me". He has taken Job's words at the end of chapter 19 as "a rebuke that insults me". Gill reads "my understanding prompts a reply" as Zophar's claim to speak from insight.
my anxious thoughts compel me to answer: Zophar speaks in haste. Henry notes that he excuses it by his anxious thoughts, and Wesley hears a reply to Job's severe sentence at the close of chapter 19. Clarke counts Zophar the harshest of the three.
Job 20:2
“Therefore do my thoughts - It has already been observed that Zophar was the most inveterate of all Job’s enemies, for we really must cease to call them friends. He sets no bounds to his invective, and outrages every rule of charity. A man of such a bitter spirit must have been, in general, very unhappy. With him Job is, by insinuation, every thing that is base, vile, and hypocritical. Mr. Good translates this verse thus: “Whither would my tumult transport me? And how far my agitation within me?” This is all the modesty that appears in Zophar’s discourse.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I have heard a rebuke that insults me: Barnes takes the rebuke as Job's warning of the sword in Job 19:29. Zophar has heard it as an insult, and his understanding prompts a reply against it. Henry observes that men often mistake passion for reason.
Job 20:3
“I have heard the check of my reproach - I have heard your violent and severe language reproaching us. Probably he refers to what Job had said in the close of his speech Job 19:29, that they had occasion to dread the wrath of God, and that they might anticipate heavy judgments as the result of their opinions. Or it may be, as Schultens supposes, that he refers to what Job said in Job 19:2, and the rebuke that he had administered there.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 20:3
“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 them beware of the sword, and lest the punishment of it should be inflicted on them; and if that should not be the case, yet there was a righteous judgment they could not escape.”
Job 20:4-7
Do you not know that from antiquity: Zophar grounds his doctrine in age, "since man was placed on the earth". Though "his arrogance reaches the heavens", "he will perish forever, like his own dung", a figure Clarke reads as chosen to match the height claimed. Barnes notes the doctrine was traditional wisdom common to the Near East.
Job 20:4
“Knowest thou not this of old - This is a maxim as ancient as the world; it began with the first man: A wicked man shall triumph but a short time; God will destroy the proud doer. Since man was placed upon earth - Literally, since Adam was placed on the earth; that is, since the fall, wickedness and hypocrisy have existed; but they have never triumphed long. Thou hast lately been expressing confidence in reference to a general judgment; but such is thy character, that thou hast little reason to anticipate with any joy the decisions of that day.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the triumph of the wicked has been brief: Barnes explains the word for triumph as the shout raised after a victory or at harvest. Zophar holds that such joy has been brief, and Henry notes he means the godless hypocrite, the kind of man he took Job to be. The target is Job.
Job 20:5
“That the triumphing - The word “triumphing” here (רננה renânâh),” shouting, rejoicing” - such a shouting as people make after a victory, or such as occurred at the close of harvesting. Here it means that the occasion which the wicked had for rejoicing would be brief. It would be but for a moment, and he then would be overwhelmed with calamity or cut off by death.”
Though his arrogance reaches the heavens: Henry takes the height as worldly wealth and greatness, rising with the man's spirit until his head touches the clouds. Clarke hears an allusion to Adam's fall from the image of God. Verse 7 brings him down to dung.
Job 20:6
“It is not his wisdom and virtue, but his worldly wealth or greatness, that he accounts his excellency, and values himself upon. We will suppose that to mount up to the heavens, and, since his spirit always rises with his condition, you may suppose that with it his head reaches to the clouds. He is every way advanced; the world has done the utmost it can for him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
he will perish forever, like his own dung: Henry calls it a shameful destruction, the man as loathsome as dung. Clarke hears Zophar doubting the resurrection of the body that Job had affirmed in the chapter before. Those who had seen him ask where he has gone.
Job 20:7
“But Zophar means his ruin in this world; and indeed sometimes notorious sinners are remarkably cut off by present judgments; they have reason enough to fear what Zophar here threatens even the triumphant sinner with. [1.] A shameful destruction: He shall perish like his own dung or dunghill, so loathsome is he to God and all good men, and so willing will the world be to part with him, Ps. cxix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Job 20:7
“He shall perish for ever - He is dust, and shall return to the dust from which he was taken. Zophar here hints his disbelief in that doctrine, the resurrection of the body, which Job had so solemnly asserted in the preceding chapter. Or he might have been like some in the present day, who believe that the wicked shall be annihilated, and the bodies of the righteous only be raised from the dead; but I know of no scripture by which such a doctrine is confirmed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Job 20:8-11
fly away like a dream: The wicked man's end is pictured as a dream that leaves no trace: "he will be chased away like a vision in the night". His sons "will seek the favor of the poor", for "his own hands must return his wealth", restoring what he took from them.
Job 20:8
“He shall fly away as a dream - Instead of rising again from corruption, as thou hast asserted, (Job 19:26), with a new body, his flesh shall rot in the earth, and his spirit be dissipated like a vapor; and, like a vision of the night, nothing shall remain but the bare impression that such a creature had once existed, but shall appear no more for ever.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The eye that saw him will see him no more: Zophar borrows the words Job had used of himself in Job 7:8 and 7:10, as Barnes notes. The eye that saw the wicked man will see him no more, and even his place will lose sight of him. Gregory takes the place as the hearts of his flatterers.
Job 20:9
“The eye also which saw him - This is almost exactly the language which Job uses respecting himself. See Job 7:8, note; Job 7:10, note.”
His sons will seek the favor of the poor: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown cite De Wette: the sons make amends to the poor, returning the wealth their father seized. Barnes reads the sons as humbled to seek favor from the most needy. Either way his hands must return the wealth.
Job 20:10
“His children shall seek to please the poor - They shall be reduced to the lowest degree of poverty and want, so as to be obliged to become servants to the poor. Cursed be Ham, a servant of servants shall he be. There are cases where the poor actually serve the poor; and this is the lowest or most abject state of poverty. His hands shall restore their goods - He shall be obliged to restore the goods that he has taken by violence.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The youthful vigor that fills his bones: Barnes notes that the King James translators supplied the words of sin, and reports Gesenius and Noyes reading bones full of youthful vigor. The man is cut off in his strength and lies down in the dust. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear an echo of Job 17:16.
Job 20:11
“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 ( ch. xxiv. 19 ), so that his iniquity is upon his bones there, Ezek. xxxii. The sin of sinners follows them to the other side death.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Job 20:11
“His bones are full of the sin of his youth - The words “of the sin” in our common translation are supplied by the translators. Gesenius and Noyes suppose that the Hebrew means, “His bones are full of youth;” that is, full of vigor and strength, and the idea according to this would be, that he would be cut off in the fulness of his strength.”
Job 20:11
“UMBREIT translates, "full of his secret sins," as in Ps 90:8; his secret guilt in his time of seeming righteousness, like secret poison, at last lays him in the dust. The English Version is best. Zophar alludes to Job's own words (Job 17:16). with him--His sin had so pervaded his nature that it accompanies him to the grave: for eternity the sinner cannot get rid of it (Re 22:11).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zophar: He Swalloweth Riches and Vomiteth Them Up Again
Job 20:12-16
evil is sweet in his mouth: The central figure runs in one line: "evil is sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue". The same food is sweet in the mouth at verse 12 and venom in the stomach at verse 14, one substance seen at two moments.
Job 20:12
“Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth - Though he has pleasure in committing it, as he has in pleasant food. The sense of this and the following verses is, that though a man may have pleasure in indulgence in sin, and may find happiness of a certain kind in it, yet that the consequences will be bitter - as if the food which he ate should become like gall, and he should cast it up with loathing. There are many sins which, from the laws of our nature, are attended with a kind of pleasure.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 20:12
“Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth - This seems to refer to the secret sins mentioned above.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
though he cannot bear to let it go: The figure from verse 12 continues: the man holds evil in his mouth like a sweet morsel, keeping it as long as he can. Barnes reads it as a lingering enjoyment. Henry adds that God, who knows the heart, knows what lies under the tongue.
Job 20:13
“Though he spare it - That is, though he retains it long in his mouth, that he may enjoy it the more. And forsake it not - Retains it as long as he can. But keep it still within his mouth - Margin, as in Hebrew “in the midst of his palate.” He seeks to enjoy it as long as possible.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 20:13
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
his food sours into the venom of cobras: The sweetness of verses 12 and 13 turns bitter in the stomach. Wesley notes that the venom of serpents was held to kill within hours. Henry compares the scroll sweet in John's mouth and bitter in his belly, Revelation 10.
Job 20:14
“Turned - From sweet to bitter. Gall of asps - Exceeding bitter and pernicious. Gall is most bitter; the gall of serpents is full of poison; and the poison of asps is most dangerous and within a few hours kills without remedy.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Job 20:14
“They have theories that are not sweet but as the gall of asps, that is, evil; and those theories come from the wine of their doctrine. "For their wine comes from the vine of Sodom." The gall of asps is in the belly of the heretics and those who declare impious dogmas contrary to truth.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Fragments on Job 14.41patristic
He swallows wealth but vomits it out: Barnes explains that the man swallows wealth greedily, like a beast that devours prey. Clarke hears the poison of verse 14 still at work. Henry adds that God will force ill-gotten wealth back to its owners.
Job 20:15
“He hath swallowed down riches - He has “glutted” down riches - or gormandized them - or devoured them greedily. The Hebrew word בלע bela‛, means “to absorb, to devour with the idea of greediness.” It is descriptive of the voracity of a wild beast, and means here that he had devoured them eagerly, or voraciously. And he shall vomit - As an epicure does that which he has drunk or swallowed with delight. “Noyes.” The idea is, that he shall lose that which he has acquired, and that it will be attended with loathing.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 20:15
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
He will suck the poison of cobras: Barnes notes that the ancients held a serpent's poison deadly however it entered the body. What the man sucked as sweet becomes the poison that kills him, as Henry and Clarke read it. The fangs of a viper finish him.
Job 20:16
“He shall suck the poison of asps - That delicious morsel, that secret, easily-besetting sin, so palatable, and so pleasurable, shall act on the life of his soul, as the poison of asps would do on the life of his body. The poison is called the gall of asps, it being anciently supposed that the poison of serpents consists in their gall, which is thought to be copiously exuded when those animals are enraged; as it has been often seen that their bite is not poisonous when they are not angry.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Job 20:17-19
He will not enjoy the streams: Zophar says the wicked man forfeits "the rivers flowing with honey and cream". The reason given is concrete: "he has oppressed and forsaken the poor". Davidson notes that this is the one place in the speech where the doctrine names a specific wrong, beside the general triumph of verse 5.
Job 20:17
“He shall not see the rivers - That is, he shall not be permitted to enjoy plenty and prosperity. Rivers or rills of honey and butter are emblems of prosperity; compare Exo 3:17; Job 29:6. A land flowing with milk, honey, and butter, is, in the Scripture, the highest image of prosperity and happiness.”
He must return the fruit of his labor: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown picture food taken from a man before he can swallow it. Barnes reads restitution: the man must return the profits of his labor to others. Henry sets Zacchaeus beside it.
Job 20:18
“That which he laboureth for shall he restore - I prefer here the reading of the Arabic, which is also supported by the Syriac, and is much nearer to the Hebrew text than the common version. He shall return to labor, but he shall not eat; he shall toil, and not be permitted to enjoy the fruit of his labor. The whole of this verse Mr. Good thus translates: - “To labor shall he return, but he shall not eat. A dearth his recompense: yea, nothing shall he taste.” It may be inquired how Mr. Good arrives at this meaning.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Job 20:18
“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, Luke xix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 20:18
“Image from food which is taken away from one before he can swallow it. restitution--(So Pr 6:31). The parallelism favors the English Version rather than the translation of GESENIUS, "As a possession to be restored in which he rejoices not." he shall not rejoice--His enjoyment of his ill-gotten gains shall then be at an end (Job 20:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
he has seized houses: Zophar charges that the man has oppressed and forsaken the poor and seized houses he did not build. Clarke holds that Zophar means Job all the while, and Barnes likens the man to a robber who plunders the poor. Henry counts it a sin that brings God's judgment.
Job 20:19
“Because he hath oppressed - Margin, “crushed.” Such is the Hebrew. And forsaken the poor - He has plundered them, and then forsaken them - as robbers do. The meaning is, that he had done this by his oppressive manner of dealing, and then left them to suffer and pine in want. He hath violently taken away an house which he builded not - That is, by overreaching and harsh dealings he has come in possession of dwellings which he did not build, or purchase in any proper manner.”
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 20:20-23
his appetite is never satisfied: Judgment falls: "When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats". Barnes reads the image as a reversal of verse 12, the sweetness taken into the mouth answered by wrath poured out at the table.
Job 20:20
Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly - I have already remarked that the word בטן beten, which we translate belly, often means in the sacred Scriptures the whole of the human trunk; the regions of the thorax and abdomen, with their contents; the heart, lungs, liver, etc., and consequently all the thoughts, purposes, and inclinations of the mind, of which those viscera were supposed to be the functionaries. The meaning seems to be, “He shall never be satisfied; he shall have an endless desire after secular good, and shall never be able to obtain what he covets.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Job 20:20
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 20:20
“UMBREIT translates, "His inward parts know no rest" from desires. his belly--that is, peace inwardly. not save--literally, "not escape with that which," &c., alluding to Job's having been stripped of his all.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Nothing is left for him to consume: Coverdale, cited by Clarke, renders it that he devoured so greedily that nothing was left behind. Henry notes that Zophar aims the line at Job, who had lost everything. His prosperity cannot last.
Job 20:21
“There shall none of his meat be left Margin, “or, be none left for his meat.” Noyes renders it, “Because nothing escaped his greatness.” Prof. Lee, “no surviver shall remain for his provision.” But the meaning, probably, is, nothing shall remain of his food, or it shall all be wasted, or dissipated. Therefore, shall no man look for his goods - Or rather, his goods or his property shall not endure. But a great variety of interpretations has been given to the passage.
In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed: Henry compares the man in Christ's parable whose ground brought forth plenty and who grew anxious. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the full force of misery as the power of the poor he oppressed, now turned against him. Clarke calls it true of every great and wicked man.
Job 20:22
“In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits - This is a fine saying, and few of the menders of Job’s text have been able to improve the version. It is literally true of every great, rich, wicked man; he has no God, and anxieties and perplexities torment him, notwithstanding he has his portion in this life. Every hand of the wicked shall come upon him - All kinds of misery shall be his portion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
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?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
God will vent His fury upon him: Barnes hears sarcasm: the glutton gets his fill, and the food is God's displeasure. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the rain as lightning and see an allusion to the fire that fell on flocks and servants in Job 1:16. Wesley reads it as fury falling beyond escape.
Job 20:23
“When he is about to fill his belly - Or rather, “there shall be enough to fill his belly.” But what “kind” of food it should be, is indicated in the following part of the verse. “God” would fill him with the food of his displeasure. It is spoken sarcastically, as of a gormandizer, or a man who lived to enjoy eating, and the meaning is, that he should for once have enough. So Rosenmuller interprets it. God shall cast the fury - This is the kind of food that he shall have.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 20:23
“Rain - This phrase denotes both the author of his plagues, God, and the nature and quality of them, that they shall come upon him like rain; with great vehemency, so that he cannot prevent or avoid it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Job 20:24-25
flees from an iron weapon: Escape from one danger delivers him to another. The Hebrew behind "liver" is the gall, which Clarke reads as continuing the poison figure of verses 14 and 16. "Terrors come over him" closes the couplet with the state Zophar has built toward across the whole speech.
Job 20:24
“He shall flee from the iron weapon - Or, “Though he should flee from the iron armor, the brazen bow should strike him through.” So that yf he fle the yron weapens, he shal be shott with the stele bow - Coverdale. That is, he shall most certainly perish: all kinds of deaths await him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
It is drawn out of his back: Wesley and Gill take it as the arrow of verse 24, drawn from the body too late to save him. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read a sword drawn by God, its gleaming point an image of lightning. Terrors of death follow.
Job 20:25
“It is drawn - Or rather, “he draws” - that is, he draws out the arrow that has been shot at him; or it may mean, as Prof. Lee supposes, that he draws, that is, “someone” draws the arrow from its quiver, or the sword from its sheath, in order to smite him. The object is to describe his death, and to show that he should be certainly overtaken with calamity. Zophar, therefore, goes through the process by which he would be shot down, or shows that he could not escape.”
Job 20:26-29
Total darkness is reserved for his treasures: The speech closes with "A fire unfanned". The last line, "This is the wicked man’s portion from God", presents the catalogue as one doctrine, and Job is never named in it. Watson notes that this is Zophar's last speech, since he takes no turn in the friends' third round.
Job 20:26
“A fire not blown shall consume him - As Zophar is here showing that the wicked cannot escape from the Divine judgments; so he points out the different instruments which God employs for their destruction. The wrath of God - any secret or supernatural curse. The iron weapon - the spear or such like. The bow, and its swift-flying arrow. Darkness - deep horror and perplexity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Job 20:26
“The darkness he is wrapped up in is a hidden darkness: it is all darkness, utter darkness, without the least mixture of light, and it is hid in his secret place, whither he has retreated and where he hopes to shelter himself; he never retires into his own conscience but he finds himself in the dark and utterly at a loss.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 20:26
“Tact is shown by the friends in not expressly mentioning, but alluding under color of general cases, to Job's calamities; here (Job 1:16) UMBREIT explains it, wickedness, is a "self-igniting fire"; in it lie the principles of destruction. ill . . . tabernacle--Every trace of the sinner must be obliterated (Job 18:15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The heavens will expose his iniquity: Barnes reads the verse as the whole creation arrayed against the wicked man. Wesley hears another reflection on Job's case and the fire from heaven, and Clarke an allusion to Korah in Numbers 16. Heaven and earth both testify.
Job 20:27
“The heaven shall reveal his iniquity - The meaning here is, that the whole creation would conspire against such a man. Heaven and earth would be arrayed against him. The course of events would be so ordered as to seem designed to bring his character out, and to show what he was. He would attempt to conceal his sin, but it would be in vain. He would hide it in his bosom, but it would be developed. He would put on the air of piety and innocence, but his secret sin would be known.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 20:27
“Heaven - God shall be a swift witness against him by extraordinary judgments; still he reflects upon Job's case, and the fire from heaven. Earth - All creatures upon earth shall conspire to destroy him. If the God of heaven and earth be his enemy, neither heaven nor earth will shew him any kindness, but all the host of both are, and will he at war with him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The possessions of his house will be removed: Barnes notes that the Hebrew verb means to go into captivity, so the man's goods vanish from his house. Henry adds that goods flow away as fast as they flowed in when the day of God's wrath comes. Clarke again recalls Korah.
Job 20:28
“The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath - A farther allusion to the punishment of the rebellious company of Korah, who not only perished themselves, but their houses also, and their goods. Num 16:32. These examples were all in point, on the ground assumed by Zophar; and such well-attested facts would not be passed over by him, had he known the record of them; and that he did know it, alludes to it, and quotes the very circumstances, is more than probable.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Job 20:28
“Numerous and growing families, if wicked and vile, are soon reduced, dispersed, and extirpated, by the judgments of God. His goods shall flow away from his family as fast as ever they flowed into it, when the day of God's wrath comes, for which, all the while his estate was in the getting by fraud and oppression, he was treasuring up wrath.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Zophar ends where he began at verse 5, on the fate of the wicked. Wesley explains the inheritance as settled and sure, the opposite of wealth gained by fraud and violence. Henry calls the verse fair warning that the portion will come.
Job 20:29
“This is the portion of a wicked man - This conclusion is similar to that which Bildad drew at the close of his speech, Job 18:21. Zophar intended, undoubtedly, that Job should apply it to himself, and that he should draw the inference, that one who had been treated in this manner, must be a wicked man. And the heritage appointed - Margin, “of his decree from.” The Hebrew is,” Of his word” (אמרוּ 'êmerô ) - that is, of his “purpose.” The idea is, that this is the divine rule, or arrangement. It is not a matter of chance.”
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
A. B. Davidson, The Book of Job, Cambridge Bible; Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and R. A. Watson, The Book of Job, Expositor's Bible.