NOTES for Job 20:1-29

Zophar's speech turned out to be the best confirmation of what Job had mentioned: that his friends behave not like righteous people but like wicked ones, wishing not so much to help him as to assert themselves at his expense. Zophar again repeats all the words already spoken more than once about the wicked person and the punishments prepared for him by God (vv. 4-29). And he repeats all this in response to the "shameful reproach" that he had to hear from Job (vv. 2-3). What, then, is the meaning of the "reproach" expressed by Job? In his previous speech Zophar had remarked to Job that he, Job, was perhaps not so righteous after all, and that God may even have hidden from him certain sins he had committed, out of mercy (Job 11:4-6). Job, in response, spoke of the fact that his only desire was to see God face to face and receive answers to all his questions from Him personally (Job 13:18-28). In that same speech he was indeed harsh with his friends, accusing them of unwillingness to understand the essence of the problem and asking them to be silent, thereby showing their wisdom (Job 13:1-13). And now Zophar, as if in self-defense, repeats the generally known and generally accepted truths about the punishment of the wicked, as if confirming what he had said earlier.

Apparently Zophar decided that Job does not agree with what everyone knows. He never understood that Job is not at all trying to refute what his friends so passionately try to convince him of. And Zophar again tries to convey to Job what Job himself knows no worse than Zophar. As we can see, Zophar did not even try to enter into what Job had been talking about for so long. And not by chance: like Job's other friends, he of course understood that Job's words are dangerous, that if Job is right, then Zophar himself and everyone else will have to reconsider much in their religiosity, and in their life as well. And he hides behind generally known truths as behind a stone wall, in order to confirm himself in what he does not want to give up.

The situation appears to be no-lose: if Job agrees with Zophar, he will have to acknowledge that he is wrong and give up his claims; and if he does not agree, he will look foolish, because then it will turn out that he, Job, is arguing with what everyone knows and trying to refute truths obvious to all. Naturally, such a speech could not help Job at all, but it allowed Zophar to justify himself and confirm himself both in his own eyes and in the eyes of every religious person who looked at things as Zophar himself did. And since among religious people, regardless of their confessional affiliation, such people are the majority, Zophar, like Job's other friends, could sleep peacefully.

In Job’s words, Zophar heard only a reproach, took offense at it, and hurried to pour the next torrent of accusations over him. Before us is yet another speech that could have been entirely appropriate had it been delivered at the right time and addressed to the right person. Unfortunately, like many accusers from different times and nations who habitually proclaim their views in monologue, Zophar hears neither Job nor even himself and is incapable of looking at himself from the outside. The name Zophar itself, incidentally, means “chatterer.”

As for the content of Zophar’s speeches, they are filled with an optimistic confidence not only in the inevitable triumph of justice, but also in the idea that the defeat of evil must come quickly: “the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment.” Yet such optimism must be recognized as superficial and frivolous.

And yet even amid errors something reasonable can be found. If we take into account that before God a thousand years are as one day, then with that qualification Zophar’s reasoning can be accepted. For the forces of evil really are destined to suffer defeat.