Zophar's speech, replying to Job's reproach that his friends lack compassion, is constructed in such a way that it is almost impossible to find fault with it...
Zophar's speech, replying to Job's reproach that his friends lack compassion, is constructed in such a way that it is almost impossible to find fault with it. Yet the meaning of his words skims the surface of life; Zophar's wisdom is very simplistic. The joy of the lawless is short-lived, and all their good things will vanish like smoke. The evil a lawless person does will eventually turn against them. That, in essence, is all Zophar says, once the poetry is removed. His speech is built out of edifying sayings, but piling them up does not make them a proof. Is there any deeper meaning in Zophar's speech than ‘the rich cry too’?
In essence, Zophar, like Job's other two friends, speaks not of what life is actually like but of what it ought to be like from his point of view. In reality, destruction, death and ruin await all human works on earth, as Ecclesiastes will write a little later. Perhaps the heart of the position the author expresses through Job's friends, who speak of the destruction of the wicked, lies elsewhere: the wicked, they say, ought to suffer for their wickedness, and evil ought to turn bitter in their mouths. But for Job's friends the converse follows too: the righteous ought to prosper. Zophar wants the world to be ordered as he describes it. In such a world, one can be content with oneself and have no fear of one's fleeting days, provided one meets a limited set of not particularly difficult requirements.
The world order Zophar and his companions describe is, by its nature, similar to any more or less developed system of criminal law. In it, the bad are punished and the good rewarded. The shadow of Charles Darwin looms behind Job's friends: they describe a world in which people are supposed to become good through natural selection. Perhaps that is not such a bad idea... But can the theory of natural selection be applied in the moral realm? The prophet Jeremiah spoke bitterly of this: ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots? Can you, then, do good when you are accustomed to doing evil?’ (Jer. 13:23) Here we encounter the Old Testament's central spiritual problem and central revelation. Human beings cannot, by themselves, overcome slavery to sin, and no natural selection will help them do so. The answer to this human powerlessness was the revelation, in the prophets' preaching, of the Saviour, the New Covenant and the outpouring of God's Spirit.
In the Darwinian world order so persistently promoted by Job's friends, there is no place for the Living God. They often repeat that it is he who punishes the wicked and the lawless; in reality, this is done by the world order they describe, by a universal law. Of course, it was in Second Temple Israel that this position spread and grew. Yet it is deeply rooted in the religious psychology common to humanity, and people often reproduce it in other religious and historical contexts. The question is: does this position accord with the Almighty's design?
20 Zophar, after a short preface, asserts, that the prosperity, of the wicked is short, and his ruin sure, Job 20:1-9.
He describes his misery in many particulars, Job 20:10-29.
20:2 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.
20:3 The check - Thy opprobrious reproofs of us. Understanding - I speak, not from passion, but certain knowledge.
20:4 This - Which I am now about to say. Since - Since the world was made.
20:6 Though - Though he be advanced to great dignity and authority.
20:11 Bones - His whole body, even the strongest parts of it.The sin - Of the punishment of it.
20:12 Mouth - To his taste; though it greatly please him for the present. Hide - As an epicure doth a sweet morsel, which he keeps and rolls about his mouth, that he may longer enjoy the pleasure of it.
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.
20:15 Vomit - Be forced to restore them. God, etc - If no man's hand can reach him, God shall find him out.
20:17 See - Not enjoy that abundant satisfaction and comfort, which good men through God's blessings enjoy.
20:18 Swallow - So as to hold it. He shall not possess it long, nor to any considerable purpose. Yea, he shall be forced to part with his estate to make compensations for his wrongs. So that he shall not enjoy what he had gotten, because it shall be taken from him.
20:20 Belly - He shall have no peace in his mind. Desired - Any part of his desirable things, but shall forfeit and lose them all.
20:21 Therefore - It being publickly known that he was totally ruined, none of his kindred shall trouble themselves about any relicks of his estate.
20:22 In, etc - In the height of prosperity he shall be distressed.Hand, etc - So his wickedness shall be punished by those as wicked as himself.
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.Eating - As it fell upon thy sons.
20:24 Flee - From the sword or spear; and so shall think him self out of danger.
20:25 It - The arrow, which had entered into his body, and now was drawn out of it either by himself or some other person; having in general said, that it came out of his body, he determines also the part of the body, the gall; which shews that the wound was both deep and deadly. Terrors - The terrors of death; because he perceived his wound was incurable.
20:26 Darkness - All sorts of miseries. Hid - Or, laid up; by God for him. It is reserved and treasured up for him, and shall infallibly overtake him. Secret - In those places where he confidently hopes to hide himself from all evil: even there God shall find him out.Not blown - By man, but kindled by God himself. He thinks by his might and violence to secure himself from men, but God will find him out.With him - With his family, who shall inherit his curse as well as his estate.
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.
20:28 Increase of his house - His estate. Depart - Shall be lost.Flow - Like waters, swiftly and strongly, and so as to return no more.His - Of God's wrath.
20:29 Heritage - Heb. 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.