Job · chapter 11 of 42
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In Job 11 Zophar the Naamathite, the third friend, speaks. He rebukes Job's torrent of words and wishes that God would speak to show him his faults, claims that God exacts of Job less than his guilt deserves, and stresses that God's wisdom is higher than the heavens. He promises that if Job sets his heart right and puts away wickedness, he will live in peace again.
Zophar is the bluntest of the three friends. Where Eliphaz spoke gently and Bildad firmly, Zophar accuses Job directly of talking nonsense and claims that God has been lenient in not punishing him more. His speech shows the hardening of the debate: the friends no longer merely explain, they condemn.
Zophar asks whether such a multitude of words should go unanswered and whether a man full of talk should be declared right. Will your babble silence people? Will you mock and no one shame you? You say your doctrine is pure and you are clean in God's eyes. Oh, that God would speak and open his lips against you, and show you the secrets of wisdom, for they are double what is seen. Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.
Then Zophar exalts the wisdom of God. Can you find out the deep things of God, or reach the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven: what can you do? Deeper than Sheol: what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. If he passes through, imprisons or summons to judgment, who can turn him back? He knows worthless men and sees iniquity without needing to look closely. But an empty man will become wise when a wild donkey's colt is born a man.
Finally Zophar offers him a way: if you prepare your heart and spread out your hands toward God, if you put iniquity far from your hand and let no injustice dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without blemish. You will be secure and will not fear. You will forget your misery, remembering it as waters that have passed away, and your life will be brighter than noonday, and its darkness will be like the morning. You will be confident, look around and lie down in safety. But the eyes of the wicked will fail, they will have no escape, and their hope is to breathe their last.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Zophar says that God exacts of Job less than his guilt deserves. It is the harshest accusation so far, since it assumes that Job is guilty and that God is still being generous to him.
Zophar asks whether Job can find out the deep things of God, higher than heaven and deeper than Sheol. He is right that God is unsearchable, but he uses it to silence Job rather than to show humility before the mystery.
Zophar calls Job to prepare his heart, spread out his hands toward God and put wickedness far from his house. The advice to return to God is good, but it starts from the assumption that Job lives in sin.
Zophar promises that Job's life will be brighter than noonday, and his darkness like the morning. The image is beautiful, and the book will end by giving Job restoration, though not for the reason Zophar believes.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Zophar the Naamathite. — Job 11:1
Answer: That his doctrine is pure and that he is clean in God's eyes. — Job 11:4
Answer: Speak and open his lips against Job to show him the secrets of wisdom. — Job 11:5-6
Answer: That God exacts of him less than his guilt deserves. — Job 11:6
Answer: Higher than heaven, deeper than Sheol, longer than the earth and broader than the sea. — Job 11:7-9
Answer: Prepare his heart, spread out his hands toward God and put iniquity far from his tent. — Job 11:13-14
Zophar reminds us of the danger of speaking with certainty about God. What he says about divine wisdom is true, but he says it to silence Job, and his advice to return to God springs from an accusation without proof. Whoever teaches the Bible must take care not to use great truths as arguments against someone who suffers.
At the same time, the chapter contains a call that the believer must never dismiss: prepare your heart and return to God. In the life of the church there are moments when we do need to examine ourselves and repent. The difference lies in the manner: each one does it before God, in humility, and it is not imposed from outside by someone who does not know what is happening in another's heart.
Job 11 closes the first cycle of the friends' speeches. In Job 12 Job will answer all three with irony: he will say that he is no less wise than they are, that God is the owner of wisdom and power, and that their arguments are known to everyone.
He was Job's third friend. Naamah is probably a place in northern Arabia. He is the one who speaks with the least gentleness, and in the second cycle he will be even angrier. Like the other two, he ends up corrected by God at the end of the book.
It is a proverb saying that an empty man will gain understanding only when a wild donkey's colt is born a man, that is, never. Zophar uses it cruelly to say that Job is a fool. It is an example of how poetry can wound when applied without compassion.
Yes, that God's wisdom is beyond human reach and that turning to God brings peace. The problem is the application: it assumes that Job is guilty. This shows that one can say something true and still do harm with it.