Job 20:2

2 “My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.

Job 20:2 in Other Translations

KJV
2 Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.
ESV
2 "Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
NLT
2 “I must reply because I am greatly disturbed.
MSG
2 "I can't believe what I'm hearing! You've put my teeth on edge, my stomach in a knot.
CSB
2 This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset!

Job 20:2 Meaning and Commentary

Job 20:2

Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer
Or "to return" F1 and appear upon the stage again, and enter the lists once more with his antagonist; he suggests as if he had intended to have said no more in this controversy, but observing what Job had said last, could not forbear replying: "therefore" because he had represented him and his friends as cruel persecutors of him, as men devoid of all humanity, pity, and compassion, and endeavoured to terrify them with the punishments of the sword, and the judgment of God to come; these occasioned many "thoughts" in him, and those thoughts obliged him to give an answer; they came in so thick and fast upon him, that out of the abundance, his heart suggested to him he could not but speak, he was full of matter, and the spirit within him, the impulse upon his mind, constrained him to make a reply; and he seems desirous of having it understood that his answer proceeded from thought; that he did not speak without thinking, but had well weighed things in his mind; and what he was about to say was the fruit of close thinking and mature deliberation:

and for [this] I make haste;
because his thoughts crowded in upon him, he had a fulness of matter, an impulse of mind, promptitude and readiness to speak on this occasion, and for fear of losing what was suggested to him, he made haste to give in his answer, perhaps observing some other of his friends rising up before him. The Targum is,

``because my sense is in me;''

and so other Jewish writers F2; be apprehended he had a right sense of things, and understood the matter in controversy full well, and therefore thought it incumbent on him to speak once more in it: Gussetius F3 renders it, "because of my disquietude"; the uneasiness of his mind raised by what Job had said, that he would have them know and consider there was a judgment; and he intimates he had considered it, and was fearful that should he be silent, and make no reply, God would condemn him in judgment for his silence; and therefore he was in a hurry to make answer, and could not be easy without it; and for his reasons for so doing he further explains himself in ( Job 20:3 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F1 (ynwbyvy) "reducunt me, q. d. in scenam"; Cocceius, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius.
F2 Ben Gersom, Bar Tzemach, Sephorno; and so Montanus.
F3 Ebr. Comment. p. 246.

Job 20:2 In-Context

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 “My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.
3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply.
4 “Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since mankind was placed on the earth,
5 that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

Cross References 1

  • 1. Psalms 42:5; Lamentations 1:20
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