Job 20

Then Zophar, the man from Naamah, answered Job. He said:

1Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

NoteZophar is the third of Job's three friends, and Naamah is his home town, otherwise unknown. This is his second and last speech in the book; he is replying to what Job has just said in chapter 19. The friends speak in turn, each answering Job's previous reply, so the chapters read as one long argument in rounds.

2My troubled thoughts push me to answer you, and that is why I speak so quickly. There is turmoil inside me.

2Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.

3I have heard a scolding that insults me, and my own good sense makes me answer back.

3I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

NoteThe King James "check of my reproach" uses "check" in its older sense of a rebuke or correction. Zophar means he has been told off, and takes it as an insult.

4Surely you know that this has been true from ancient times, ever since people were first placed on the earth:

4Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

5The victory shout of a wicked person does not last long. The gladness of a person who ignores God lasts only a moment.

5That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

NoteThe King James "hypocrite" is misleading here. The Hebrew word means godless or morally polluted, someone with no regard for God, not someone who puts on a false show of goodness.

6Even if his pride climbs as high as the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,

6Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

NoteThe King James "excellency" does not mean excellence in the modern sense. It means height or loftiness, and here refers to a man raising himself up, the physical image of towering into the sky is the picture of arrogance.

7he will be gone forever, thrown out like his own waste. People who used to see him will ask, "Where did he go?"

7Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

NoteDung was the most worthless thing in a household, swept out and burned as fuel. To perish "like his own dung" is to be disposed of and forgotten, not merely to die.

8He will fly away like a dream, and no one will find him. He will be chased off like something seen at night that vanishes.

8He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

9The eye that once saw him will not see him again. The place where he lived will never look on him again.

9The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

Note"His place" means the land, house or estate he owned. The Hebrew speaks of it as though it had eyes: the property itself will not see its owner again.

10His children will have to beg the poor for favors. His own hands will have to give back the wealth he took.

10His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

NoteThe picture is a reversal, the children of a man who robbed the poor are reduced to begging favors from poor people themselves. The Hebrew leaves it open whose hands give back the wealth, his or his children's.

11His bones are full of the sins of his youth, and all of it will lie down with him in the dust.

11His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

NoteThe Hebrew says only "his bones are full of his youth," which can mean either youthful vigor or the wrongs done in youth. The King James adds the word "sin" to settle the question; the original does not.

12Evil tastes sweet in his mouth. He hides it under his tongue.

12Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

13He will not let it go. He cannot bear to give it up, so he keeps holding it in his mouth.

13Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

14But down in his stomach the food turns sour. Inside him it becomes the venom of cobras.

14Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

Note"Meat" in the King James means food of any kind, not flesh, and "bowels" means the insides or stomach generally. "Gall" is bile, the bitter fluid of the gall bladder; ancient writers used it as a word for snake venom.

15He has swallowed riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will force them back out of his belly.

15He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.

16He will suck the poison of cobras. The viper's tongue will kill him.

16He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

NoteAncient writers often spoke of a snake's tongue as the thing that struck and killed, where we would say fangs. The word translated "asp" is a large venomous snake, usually taken to be a cobra.

17He will never get to see the streams, the rivers that flow with honey and cream.

17He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

Note"Butter" in the King James means curdled milk or thick cream, not the churned butter we buy. Rivers running with honey and cream was a stock image of a land of extreme plenty, the same picture behind the phrase "a land flowing with milk and honey."

18He must hand back what he worked for, and he will not get to swallow it. He must pay back as much as he gained, and he will get no pleasure from it.

18That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

NoteRestitution was a legal obligation in the ancient world: someone who took what was not his had to repay it, sometimes with an added penalty. The point is that the man is legally stripped of his gains rather than simply losing them.

19All this is because he crushed poor people and left them with nothing, and because he seized houses he did not build.

19Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

NoteSeizing houses and fields from debtors was the standard example of oppression by the powerful in the ancient Near East. A creditor could take the property of someone who could not pay, and the poor had little redress.

20He never felt any peace inside, because he was never satisfied. He will not get away with anything he wanted so badly.

20Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

NoteIn Hebrew the belly or stomach often stands for a person's appetite and inner self, not just the organ. "He shall not feel quietness in his belly" means his craving never settled.

21Nothing was left over from what he devoured. That is why his wealth will not last.

21There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

Note"Meat" again means food in general. The image is of a man who devoured everything, leaving nothing over, including nothing to sustain him later.

22Right when he has more than enough, he will be squeezed by trouble. Misery will come at him with its full force.

22In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

Note"In straits" means hemmed in, squeezed, with no room to move. The second half is genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean the full force of misery falls on him, or that the hand of everyone he made miserable comes against him.

23Just as he is about to fill his stomach, God will pour out his burning anger on him. God will rain it down on him while he is still eating.

23When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

24He may run away from an iron weapon, but a bronze-tipped arrow will pass right through him.

24He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

NoteThe King James "bow of steel" is inaccurate; steel was not made in this period. The Hebrew word means bronze, and refers to a bronze-tipped arrow or a bronze-fitted bow.

25The arrow is pulled out and comes through his body. The shining point comes out from his liver. Terrors sweep over him.

25It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

Note"Gall" here stands for the gall bladder and the liver beside it, the vital organs deep in the body. An arrow coming out through them describes a wound clean through the man.

26Total darkness is stored up for his hidden treasures. A fire that no one lit will burn him up, and it will destroy whatever is left in his tent.

26All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

Note"A fire not blown" means a fire nobody lit and nobody fanned with bellows, that is, one with no human cause. "Tabernacle" in the King James simply means tent, the ordinary dwelling of a herdsman like Job, not a place of worship.

27The heavens will show everyone the wrong he did, and the earth will rise up against him.

27The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

NoteCalling on the heavens and the earth to testify was courtroom and treaty language in the ancient Near East: they stood as permanent witnesses who had seen everything and could be summoned to give evidence.

28Everything his household has gained will be hauled away, washed off on the day of God's anger.

28The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

29This is what a wicked man gets from God. This is what God has set aside for him.

29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.

Note"Portion" and "heritage" are inheritance words. A portion was the share of land or goods allotted to a person, and a heritage was what passed to him by right. Zophar is saying this ruin is the man's assigned share, handed to him as another man receives an estate.