Job · chapter 20 of 42
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In Job 20 Zophar speaks for the second time, stung by Job's rebuke. He argues that from of old the triumph of the wicked has been brief: though his height reaches the heavens, he will perish forever. He compares evil to a sweet morsel that turns to venom in the belly, says that the one who oppressed the poor will give up what he swallowed, and concludes that God appoints this heritage to the wicked.
Zophar speaks again with vehemence, and his speech is the shortest and most passionate of the second cycle. His thesis is simple: the prosperity of the wicked is fleeting, and God reverses it. What he says about injustice toward the poor is true, but applied to Job it is an accusation without proof, and Job will answer with facts that contradict it.
Zophar says he hears a rebuke that insults him and feels compelled to answer. Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, that the exulting of the wicked is short and the joy of the godless lasts but a moment? Though his height mounts up to the heavens and his head reaches to the clouds, he will perish forever like his own dung, and those who saw him will say: where is he? He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night. His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth. His bones, full of youth, will lie down with him in the dust.
Then he uses an image. Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue, though he savors it and will not let it go, his food is turned in his stomach to the venom of cobras within him. He swallowed down riches and he will vomit them up, for God will make his belly give them up. He will suck the poison of cobras, and the tongue of a viper will kill him. He will not enjoy his wealth, because he crushed and abandoned the poor and seized houses he did not build.
Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not save anything of what he desires. Nothing was left after his gorging, so his prosperity will not endure. In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress, and the hand of everyone in misery will come against him. To fill his belly, God will send his burning anger against him and rain it on him as he eats. If he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce him. Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures, and a fire not fanned will devour him. The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him. This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Zophar claims that from of old the triumph of the wicked has been short and the joy of the godless lasts only a moment. It is a truth other biblical texts recall, but Zophar uses it as a rule without exceptions.
Evil is sweet in the mouth of the wicked, who savors it and holds it, but in his stomach it turns into the venom of a viper. The image is vivid: what looks like pleasure turns into ruin.
Zophar says the wicked man crushed and abandoned the poor and seized houses he did not build. It is a social accusation that connects with the law and the prophets. But here it is applied to Job without proof, and later Job will protest that he helped the poor.
Zophar concludes that this is the wicked man's portion from God and the heritage God decrees for him. It sums up his doctrine: God judges with precision, and whoever suffers does so because he deserves it.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Zophar the Naamathite, for the second time. — Job 20:1
Answer: That it is short and that the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. — Job 20:5
Answer: A dream, a vision of the night, and his own dung. — Job 20:7-8
Answer: It turns in his stomach into the venom of cobras, the poison of a viper. — Job 20:12-14
Answer: He crushed and abandoned them and seized houses he did not build. — Job 20:19
Answer: By saying that this is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage God decrees for him. — Job 20:29
Zophar's speech holds truths the believer must not forget: injustice toward the poor does not go without judgment, and ill-gotten gain does not bring peace. But it is also an example of how that truth turns cruel when applied to someone who suffers without having done anything wrong.
In your group, ask how to speak of divine justice without assuming that another's pain is punishment. It is also worth each person examining their relationship to money and to the neediest, not out of fear of punishment but because God loves justice. And let us remember that at the end of the book it is God who will judge both the friends and Job.
Job 20 ends with Zophar's sentence, which presumes to own the truth. In Job 21 Job will answer with an argument that dismantles the doctrine of the three friends: he will ask why the wicked live, grow old and become mighty.
There is a biblical basis for saying that unjust gain does not bring lasting peace, as Proverbs and the prophets teach. But the Bible also acknowledges that the wicked sometimes prosper for a long time, and that is what Job will point out in his reply. Neither observation is enough on its own.
It is an image of deadly poison: the cobra is a venomous snake. Zophar says that what seems sweet to the wicked turns to venom inside him. It is a metaphor expressing that evil, though pleasant in taste at first, ends up destroying the one who consumes it.
Because Job has said that the friends do not understand and that God has treated him unjustly. Zophar takes it as an insult to his intelligence and to traditional faith. It is a common reaction: when a belief we cherish is questioned, we tend to defend it more harshly.