Job 20

General context

Zophar the Naamathite answers a second time. He says his thoughts cause him to answer and he makes haste, because he has heard the check of his reproach and the spirit of his understanding drives him to reply. He asks whether Job does not know from of old, since man was placed on earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short and the hypocrite's joy lasts a moment. Though his excellency mounts to the heavens, he perishes for ever like his own dung, flies away like a dream, and is seen no more; his children must please the poor and his hands restore their goods; his bones are full of the sin of his youth. Wickedness sweet in his mouth turns in his bowels to the gall of asps; he swallows riches and vomits them, and God casts them out of his belly; he sucks the poison of asps and the viper's tongue slays him. He will not see the rivers of honey and butter; what he laboured for he must restore, because he oppressed and forsook the poor and violently took a house he did not build. He feels no quietness in his belly; in the fulness of his sufficiency he is in straits; when he is about to fill his belly God rains the fury of his wrath on him while he is eating. He flees the iron weapon and the bow of steel strikes him through; the glittering sword comes out of his gall; a fire not blown consumes him; the heaven reveals his iniquity and the earth rises against him; the increase of his house departs in the day of his wrath. Zophar concludes that this is the portion of a wicked man from God.

Cited passages: Job 20:1, Job 20:2, Job 20:3, Job 20:4, Job 20:5, Job 20:6, Job 20:7, Job 20:8, Job 20:10, Job 20:11, Job 20:12, Job 20:14, Job 20:15, Job 20:16, Job 20:17, Job 20:18, Job 20:19, Job 20:20, Job 20:22, Job 20:23, Job 20:24, Job 20:26, Job 20:27, Job 20:28, Job 20:29

Job 20 (KJV)

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Historical context

Zophar the Naamathite, named in 2.11, speaks for the second time; his first speech was chapter 11. The narrator's only words are the speaker line. Zophar says he has heard the check of my reproach, which follows Job's warning at the end of chapter 19 that the friends should be afraid of the sword; he does not quote it. Like Bildad in chapter 18, Zophar describes the wicked and the hypocrite without naming Job, and the text does not say whether Job is meant; several details, riches vomited up, a house violently taken, the increase of his house departing, sit close to Job's losses in chapter 1 and to Eliphaz's picture of the wicked in 15.29. The line His bones are full of the sin of his youth is Zophar's, and it echoes Job's own complaint in 13.26 that God makes him possess the iniquities of his youth, but Zophar draws no explicit connection. Since man was placed upon earth is Zophar's appeal to what has always been known; no source is named. The speech contains no conditional promise to Job, unlike his first in 11.13 to 19.

Cited passages: Job 20:1, Job 2:11, Job 11:1, Job 20:3, Job 19:29, Job 20:5, Job 20:15, Job 20:19, Job 20:28, Job 1:3, Job 15:29, Job 20:11, Job 13:26, Job 20:4, Job 11:13

Literary context

Zophar announces haste, and the speech has that quality: a two-verse preface, then a portrait of the wicked man built largely on eating and the body. Wickedness is sweet in the mouth and hidden under the tongue; then it turns in the bowels; riches are swallowed and vomited; the belly is about to be filled and God's wrath rains on him while he is eating; the sword comes out of his gall. The poison of asps and the viper's tongue tie the food to death. The images of height and vanishing at the start, head in the clouds, then dung, dream, night vision, stand against Job's wish in 19.23 and 24 to have his words made permanent: the wicked leaves no trace, Where is he. The line The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him inverts Job's appeal in 16.18 and 19 to earth and heaven on his behalf, turning both into accusers. The closing formula, This is the portion of a wicked man from God, matches Bildad's ending in 18.21, so the second round of the friends closes with the same verdict twice. Job's reply at 21.3 asks them to let him speak and then mock on.

Cited passages: Job 20:2, Job 20:12, Job 20:14, Job 20:15, Job 20:23, Job 20:25, Job 20:16, Job 20:6, Job 20:7, Job 20:8, Job 19:23, Job 20:27, Job 16:18, Job 16:19, Job 20:29, Job 18:21, Job 21:3

Key moments

1. Zophar speaks again (Job 20:1). Zophar the Naamathite answers a second time.
2. I make haste (Job 20:2). Zophar says his thoughts drive him to answer quickly.
3. Triumph of the wicked is short (Job 20:5). Zophar says the hypocrite's joy lasts a moment.
4. Perish like a dream (Job 20:8). Zophar says the wicked man flies away like a dream.
5. Riches vomited up (Job 20:15). Zophar says the wicked man swallows riches and God casts them out.
6. Wrath rained while he eats (Job 20:23). Zophar says God rains fury on the wicked man as he fills his belly.
7. Portion of a wicked man (Job 20:29). Zophar says this is the heritage appointed by God.

For reflection

Zophar answers Job's appeal to a witness in heaven and to the earth by saying heaven will reveal the wicked man's iniquity and earth will rise against him. When two speakers call on the same witnesses for opposite verdicts, what is left for the reader to weigh?

People in this chapter

Also indexed here:

• Zophar