Job 20

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said,

2 For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving me on.

3 I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame, and your answers to me are wind without wisdom.

4 Have you knowledge of this from early times, when man was placed on the earth,

5 That the pride of the sinner is short, and the joy of the evil-doer but for a minute?

6 Though he is lifted up to the heavens, and his head goes up to the clouds;

7 Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever: those who have seen him say, Where is he?

8 He is gone like a dream, and is not seen again; he goes in flight like a vision of the night.

9 The eye which saw him sees him no longer; and his place has no more knowledge of him.

10 His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to them, and his hands give back his wealth.

11 His bones are full of young strength, but it will go down with him into the dust.

12 Though evil-doing is sweet in his mouth, and he keeps it secretly under his tongue;

13 Though he takes care of it, and does not let it go, but keeps it still in his mouth;

14 His food becomes bitter in his stomach; the poison of snakes is inside him.

15 He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it is forced out of his stomach by God.

16 He takes the poison of snakes into his mouth, the tongue of the snake is the cause of his death.

17 Let him not see the rivers of oil, the streams of honey and milk.

18 He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading.

19 Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

20 There is no peace for him in his wealth, and no salvation for him in those things in which he took delight.

21 He had never enough for his desire; for this cause his well-being will quickly come to an end.

22 Even when his wealth is great, he is full of care, for the hand of everyone who is in trouble is turned against him.

23 God gives him his desire, and sends the heat of his wrath on him, making it come down on him like rain.

24 He may go in flight from the iron spear, but the arrow from the bow of brass will go through him;

25 He is pulling it out, and it comes out of his back; and its shining point comes out of his side; he is overcome by fears.

26 All his wealth is stored up for the dark: a fire not made by man sends destruction on him, and on everything in his tent.

27 The heavens make clear his sin, and the earth gives witness against him.

28 The produce of his house is taken away into another country, like things given into the hands of others in the day of wrath.

29 This is the reward of the evil man, and the heritage given to him by God.

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Job 20 Commentary

Chapter 20

Zophar speaks of the short joy of the wicked. (1-9) The ruin of the wicked. (10-22) The portion of the wicked. (23-29)

Verses 1-9 Zophar's discourse is upon the certain misery of the wicked. The triumph of the wicked and the joy of the hypocrite are fleeting. The pleasures and gains of sin bring disease and pain; they end in remorse, anguish, and ruin. Dissembled piety is double iniquity, and the ruin that attends it will be accordingly.

Verses 10-22 The miserable condition of the wicked man in this world is fully set forth. The lusts of the flesh are here called the sins of his youth. His hiding it and keeping it under his tongue, denotes concealment of his beloved lust, and delight therein. But He who knows what is in the heart, knows what is under the tongue, and will discover it. The love of the world, and of the wealth of it, also is wickedness, and man sets his heart upon these. Also violence and injustice, these sins bring God's judgments upon nations and families. Observe the punishment of the wicked man for these things. Sin is turned into gall, than which nothing is more bitter; it will prove to him poison; so will all unlawful gains be. In his fulness he shall be in straits, through the anxieties of his own mind. To be led by the sanctifying grace of God to restore what was unjustly gotten, as Zaccheus was, is a great mercy. But to be forced to restore by the horrors of a despairing conscience, as Judas was, has no benefit and comfort attending it.

Verses 23-29 Zophar, having described the vexations which attend wicked practices, shows their ruin from God's wrath. There is no fence against this, but in Christ, who is the only Covert from the storm and tempest, ( Isaiah 32:2 ) . Zophar concludes, "This is the portion of a wicked man from God;" it is allotted him. Never was any doctrine better explained, or worse applied, than this by Zophar, who intended to prove Job a hypocrite. Let us receive the good explanation, and make a better application, for warning to ourselves, to stand in awe and sin not. One view of Jesus, directed by the Holy Spirit, and by him suitably impressed upon our souls, will quell a thousand carnal reasonings about the suffering of the faithful.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 20

Zophar and his friends, not satisfied with Job's confession of faith, he in his turn replies, and in his preface gives his reasons why he made any answer at all, and was so quick in it, Job 20:1-3; and appeals to Job for the truth of an old established maxim, that the prosperity of wicked men and hypocrites is very short lived, Job 20:4,5; and the short enjoyment of their happiness is described by several elegant figures and similes, Job 20:6-9; such a wicked man being obliged, in his lifetime, to restore his ill gotten goods, and at death to lie down with the sins of his youth, Job 20:10,11; his sin in getting riches, the disquietude of his mind in retaining them, and his being forced to make restitution, are very beautifully expressed by the simile of a sweet morsel kept in the mouth, and turned to the gall of asps in the bowels, and then vomited up, Job 20:12-16; the disappointment he shall have, the indigent and strait circumstances he shall be brought into, and the restitution he shall be obliged to make for the oppression of the poor, and the uneasiness he shall feel in his own breast, are set forth in a very strong light, Job 20:17-22; and it is suggested, that not only the hand of wicked men should be upon him, but the wrath of God also, which should seize on him suddenly and secretly, and would be inevitable, he not being able to make his escape from it, and which would issue in the utter destruction of him and his in this world, and that to come, Job 20:23-28. And the chapter is, concluded with this observation, that such as before described is the appointed portion and heritage of a wicked man from God, Job 20:29.