Job 20:2
in Job 20“So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer, because of the turmoil within me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, Even by reason of my haste that is in me.
KJV
Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.
⋯
This verse in Job 20
Commentary
10 notes on this verseVer. 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.
This site's exposition
Zophar the Naamathite replied
on Job 20:1-3
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.
This site's exposition
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.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
After Sophar heard the opinion of Job about the hope of the future life, he seems to have acquiesced, and so after this second answer he contradicted nothing in the third one. But there was still something in his heart which did not permit him …
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Therefore - For this thy severe sentence. Make haste - I speak sooner than I intended. And possibly interrupted Job, when he was proceeding in his discourse.
Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer,....
The best counsel is too often ill taken from an antagonist, and therefore usually may be well spared. Zophar seemed more in haste to speak than became a wise man; but he excuses his haste with two things:-- 1.
His discourse is long, and all upon one subject, the very same that Bildad was large upon ( ch. xviii. ), the certain misery of wicked people and the ruin that awaits them. He asserts, in general, that the prosperity of a wicked person is short, and his ruin sure,
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
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.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Therefore - לכן lākên, “certainly, truly.” In view of what has been just said. Or perhaps the word means merely certainly, truly. Do my thoughts cause me to answer - This is variously rendered. The Vulgate renders it, Idcirco cogitationes meae variae succedunt sibi, et mens in diversa rapitur - “Therefore my various thoughts follow in succession, and the mind is distracted.” The Septuagint, “I did not suppose that thou wouldst speak against these things, and you do not understand more than I.” How this was ever made from the Hebrew it is impossible to say. On the word “thoughts,” see the notes at Job 4:13. The word denotes thoughts which divide and distract the mind; not calm and collected reflections, but those which disturb, disconcert, and trouble. He acknowledges that it was not calm reflection which induced him to reply, but the agitating emotions produced by the speech of Job. The word rendered “cause me to answer” (ישׁיבוּני yeshı̂ybûnı̂y), “cause me to return” - and Jerome understood it as meaning that his thoughts returned upon him in quick and troublesome succession, and says in his Commentary on Job, that the meaning is, “I am troubled and agitated because you say that you sustain these evils from God without cause, when nothing evil ought to be suspected of God.” And for this I make haste - Margin, “my haste is in me.” The meaning is, “the impetuosity of my feelings urges me on. I reply on account of the agitation of my soul, which will admit of no delay.” His heart was full, and he hastened to give vent to his feelings in impassioned and earnest language.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לָ֭כֵן | lakhen | <to> therefore | H3651 → | 771 times |
| שְׂעִפַּ֣י | seipai | disquieting thoughts my | H5587 → | |
| יְשִׁיב֑וּנִי | yeshivuni | they make respond me | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| וּ֝בַעֲב֗וּר | uvaavur | and in order | H5668 → | |
| ח֣וּשִׁי | chushi | to agitate I | H2363 → | |
| בִֽי׃ | vi | in me |
לָ֭כֵן<to> therefore
lakhenH3651 →771 times
שְׂעִפַּ֣יdisquieting thoughts my
seipaiH5587 →
יְשִׁיב֑וּנִיthey make respond me
yeshivuniH7725 →1056 times
וּ֝בַעֲב֗וּרand in order
uvaavurH5668 →
ח֣וּשִׁיto agitate I
chushiH2363 →
בִֽי׃in me
vi
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 20:9If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of…
it leads to
- Psalms 39:3
My heart grew hot within me; as I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:
- Job 32:18–20
For I am full of words, and my spirit within me compels me.
- Acts 4:20
For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
- 1 Corinthians 9:16–17
Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
- Psalms 39:3
Through
Proverbs 14:29A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly.
it leads to
- James 1:19
My beloved brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
- Ecclesiastes 7:9
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the lap of a fool.
- Proverbs 14:17
A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a devious man is hated.
- Proverbs 15:18
A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.
- James 1:19
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XV; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.