Jobchapter 20
29 verses · KJVJob book hub →
Key verse
I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 11.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Zophar's second and final speech, provoked and unrepentant. His premise is ancient and absolute: 'the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment' (20:5). Though he mount up to the heavens, he shall perish for ever; the eye that saw him shall see him no more. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth and he hide it under his tongue, his food is turned in his bowels to the gall of asps: 'he shall suck the poison of asps.' He swallowed down riches and shall vomit them up again; 'the heavens shall reveal his iniquity.' Then Zophar falls silent for the rest of the book.
Context
Poetry · Unknown · Job overview
Where the chapter sits
Job 20 falls in Dialogue: three cycles (chapters 3–27). Job's opening complaint (3); three rounds with Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar; the friends' rigid retribution theology; the third cycle breaks: Zophar does not speak again. The dialogue exhausts itself as argument.
Before it: Prose prologue: heavenly court, chapters 1–2. After it: Hymn to wisdom, chapters 28.
The whole shape of Job→The world behind this chapter
Job 20The history
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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- John E. Hartley, The Book of Job
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. Zophar: The Triumphing of the Wicked Is Short
1. (vv. 1-3)
a.answered Zophar the Naamathite: Zophar opens agitated rather than measured: therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste. He hears Job's words at the end of chapter 19 as a personal reproach, the check of my reproach, and answers out of that sting rather than out of new argument. Henry notes the haste itself as a mark of a man more nettled than reasoned, and Gill reads the spirit of my understanding as Zophar's claim to speak from insight rather than mere feeling, a claim the speech proceeds to test.
Job 20:2, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Job 20:2
“Ver. 1. Therefore do my thoughts changefully succeed one another, and my mind is transported diverse ways. [LITERAL INTERPRETATION] 1. As though he said in plain words; 'Because I see the terribleness of the last Judgment, therefore I am confounded in a state of consternation by the tumults of my thoughts.' For the mind spreads itself wider in its range of thought, the more it considers how dreadful that is which threatens it.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVpatristic
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
Job 20:3, 3 voices
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 20:3
“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.”
Job 20:3
“Men often mistake the dictates of their passion for the dictates of their reason, and therefore think they do well to be angry. Zophar proceeds very plainly to show the ruin and destruction of wicked people, insinuating that because Job was destroyed and ruined he was certainly a wicked man and a hypocrite. How this doctrine is introduced,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 4-7)
a.Knowest thou not this of old: Zophar grounds his doctrine in age rather than in argument, since man was placed upon earth, and states it plainly: the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment. However high his excellency mounts, reaching the clouds, he perishes for ever like his own dung, a deliberately degrading figure Clarke reads as chosen to match the height just claimed. Barnes notes that the doctrine is traditional wisdom common to the ancient Near East and not Zophar's invention, which is part of why it sounds so confident and answers so little of Job's own case.
Job 20:4, 1 voice
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
Job 20:5, 2 voices
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.”
Job 20:5
“Observe, (1.) He asserts the misery, not only of those who are openly wicked and profane, but of hypocrites, who secretly practice wickedness under a show and profession of religion, because such a wicked man he looked upon Job to be; and it is true that a form of godliness, if it be made use of for a cloak of maliciousness, does but make bad worse.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 20:6, 1 voice
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
Job 20:7, 2 voices
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 20:7
“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
3. (vv. 8-11)
a.fly away as a dream: The wicked man's disappearance is pictured as a dream that leaves no trace, chased away as a vision of the night, until the eye that once saw him sees him no more. His own children are reduced to seeking favor from the poor his hands once wronged, restoring what he took. Gill reads his bones full of the sin of his youth as inherited consequence carried into old age and buried with him in the dust, a picture of guilt outlasting the body that bore it.
Job 20:8, 1 voice
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
Job 20:9, 1 voice
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.”
Job 20:10, 2 voices
Job 20:10
“Ver. 10. His children shall be wasted with poverty. 9. It is written, For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter [Wisd. 1, 4]; and it is declared by the Psalmist, The rich have lacked and been a hungred [Ps. 34, 10]. For if their want and hunger were spoken of outward starving, then surely they would be any thing but rich, who were in want of the bread of the body.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVpatristic
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
Job 20:11, 3 voices
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
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
B. Zophar: He Swalloweth Riches and Vomiteth Them Up Again
1. (vv. 12-16)
a.wickedness be sweet in his mouth: The chapter's central figure runs in one escalating line: sin tastes sweet and is hidden under the tongue, kept and savored rather than spat out, until it turns in his bowels into the gall of asps. The riches swallowed down are vomited up again, God himself casting them out of his belly, and the same poison that fed him now kills him, the viper's tongue shall slay him. Delitzsch reads the whole figure as sin under the image of a delicacy that becomes venom once digested, the pleasure and the poison being one substance viewed at two moments.
Job 20:13, 3 voices
Job 20:13
“Ver. 13. He will spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his throat. [LITERAL INTERPRETATION] 14. For the evil that he delights in he 'spares,' because he does not, by practising penance, hunt it down in himself. Whence too it is added; and forsake it not. For if he had the mind to 'forsake,' he would not 'spare' it, but would pursue it closely. Now he 'keeps it within his throat;' because he so retains it in thought, that he never utters it in speech.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVpatristic
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.”
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
Job 20:14, 3 voices
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
Job 20:14
“Yet his meat - His food. In his bowels is turned - That is, it is as if he had taken food which was exceedingly pleasant, and had retained it in his mouth as long as possible, that he might enjoy it, but when he swallowed it, it became bitter and offensive; compare Rev 10:9-10. Sin may be pleasant when it is committed, but its consequences will be bitter. It is the gall of asps - On the meaning of the word here rendered “asps” (פתן pethen), see the notes at Isa 11:”
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
Job 20:15, 2 voices
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.”
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
Job 20:16, 2 voices
Job 20:16
“Ver. 16. He shall suck the head of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him. 19. The 'asp' is a small serpent, but the 'viper' hath more length of body. And asps produce eggs, and their young are hatched from the eggs. But when vipers have conceived, their 'young ravin in their womb, which bursting the parents' sides issue out of their bellies. Hence too it is called the 'viper,' because it is a 'parent by violence.'”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVpatristic
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
2. (vv. 17-19)
a.shall not see the rivers: The rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter name the land's own blessing language, and Zophar says the wicked man forfeits it: what he labored for he must restore, taking no joy in it. The reason given is concrete rather than general, he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor, and hath violently taken away an house which he builded not. Davidson notes that this is the one place in the speech where the doctrine touches a specific wrong, oppression and seizure, rather than resting on the abstract triumph of verse 5.
Job 20:17, 2 voices
Job 20:17
“Ver. 17. He shall not see the streamlets of the torrent river of honey and butter. 20. The Lord saith in the Gospel; He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [John 7, 38. 39.] Where the Evangelist subjoins, saying, But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. And so 'the streamlets of the river' are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVpatristic
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.”
Job 20:18, 3 voices
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
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
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 20:19, 2 voices
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.”
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
3. (vv. 20-23)
a.shall not feel quietness in his belly: The man who swallowed so much finds no rest in it, he shall not save of that which he desired, and Zophar turns his own former companions against him, every hand of the wicked shall come upon him. The climax is timed for the worst moment, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating, the meal itself becoming the occasion of judgment. Barnes reads the image as deliberately reversing verse 12, the sweetness taken into the mouth answered by wrath poured out at the very table.
Job 20:20, 3 voices
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
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
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 20:21, 2 voices
Job 20:21
“Ver. 21. There shall none of his meat be left. 25. 'His meat' is all that he coveted with wrong desire; but when the hypocrite is struck, 'there is none of his meat left,' in that when he is himself carried to eternal punishments, he is parted from all the good things that he had gotten here. And hence it is yet further added; Therefore shall nought remain from his goods. For if 'aught did remain of his goods,' he would take along with him the things that he had possession of.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVpatristic
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.
Job 20:22, 2 voices
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
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
Job 20:23, 2 voices
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.”
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
4. (vv. 24-25)
a.flee from the iron weapon: Escape from one danger only delivers him to another, he flees the iron weapon and the bow of steel strikes him through, the arrow drawn out again from the body it entered. Clarke reads the glittering sword coming out of his gall as continuing the poison figure of verses 14 and 16, the very organ that turned sweetness to venom now pierced. Terrors are upon him closes the couplet with the state Zophar has been building toward across the whole speech.
Job 20:24, 1 voice
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
Job 20:25, 3 voices
Job 20:25
“Ver. 25. He is drawn and cometh out of his sheath, yea, lightening in his bitterness. 31. This wicked man lays plots in arts of robbery on his neighbours. And whilst he is plotting mischief in the thoughts of his heart, it is as if 'the sword were still in its sheath;' but when he wickedly executes the mischief, which he has contrived, he 'cometh out of his sheath,' in that he is brought out to view, from the secresy of his thoughts, in the wickedness of evil doing.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVpatristic
Job 20:25
“It is drawn, and cometh out of the body,.... That is, the arrow with which a wicked man is stricken through; either it is drawn, and comes out of the quiver, as Broughton; or rather is drawn out of the body of a wicked man, being shot into it, and that in order that he may be cured of his wound if possible, but to no purpose, since it follows: yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall; being thrust into it, which being pierced and poured out, is certain and immediate death, see Job 16:”
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.”
5. (vv. 26-29)
a.darkness shall be hid in his secret places: The speech closes with a fire not blown, one Zophar does not name but leaves unexplained in its origin, consuming what darkness had hidden away, and with heaven and earth both turning witness against the man, the heaven shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him. This is the portion of a wicked man from God names the whole catalogue as a single doctrine rather than a threat aimed at Job by name. Watson notes that this is the last speech given to Zophar in the book; his third turn in the friends' third round never comes, and the debate's structure lets his silence stand where his argument ran out.
Job 20:26, 3 voices
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
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
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 20:27, 3 voices
Job 20:27
“Ver. 27. The heavens shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. 37. What do we understand by 'the heavens,' but the righteous, and what by 'the earth,' but sinners? And hence in the Lord's prayer we pray; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven, meaning this, that the will of our Creator, in the same way as it is accomplished in all the righteous, may also be fulfilled in all sinners as well. Moreover of the righteous it is said, The heavens declare the glory of God [Ps. 19, 1].”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVpatristic
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.”
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
Job 20:28, 2 voices
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
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
Job 20:29, 3 voices
Job 20:29
“Ver. 29. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage of his words from the Lord. 39. For if, while placed in this life, he had been minded to act rightly, he would have had for his 'portion' with the Lord fellowship in the kingdom of heaven; but because he chose to be subjected to bad desires, his 'portion from the Lord' he found in torment, because he did not seek to obtain a share in the grace of that Lord. But it is well said, And the heritage of his words from the Lord.”
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVpatristic
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.”
Job 20:29
“Heritage - Hebrew. the heritage; so called, to denote the stability and assurance of it, that it is as firm as an inheritance to the right heir; and in opposition to that inheritance which he had gotten by fraud and violence.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Job 20. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 11 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on A. B. Davidson, The Book of Job, Cambridge Bible; Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Matthew Henry; Origen of Alexandria, FRAGMENTS ON JOB 14.41 and R. A. Watson, The Book of Job, Expositor's Bible.
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