Job 20:1-11

1 And then Zophar (the) Naamathite answered, and said,

2 Therefore my thoughts diverse come one after another; and the mind is ravished into diverse things. (And so now my thoughts come diversely one after another; and my mind thinketh on many different things.)

3 I shall hear the teaching, by which thou reprovest me; and the spirit of mine understanding shall answer me. (I have heard the words, with which thou rebukest me; and the spirit of my understanding hath given me an answer.)

4 I know this from the beginning, since man was set on [the] earth, (Certainly thou knowest this from the beginning, since man was put on the earth,)

5 that the praising of wicked men is short(-lived), and the joy of an hypocrite is at the likeness of a point soon passing (away).

6 Though his pride go up into (the) heaven(s), and his head toucheth the clouds,

7 he shall be lost in the end, as a dunghill; and, they that have seen him, shall say, Where is he? (he shall be discarded in the end, like his own dung; and then they who have seen him, shall say, Where is he?)

8 As a dream flying away, or soon forgotten, he shall not be found; he shall pass as the sight of nights. (Like a dream flying away, or soon forgotten, he shall not be found; he shall pass away like a vision in the night.)

9 The eye that saw him shall not see him again; and his place shall no more behold him.

10 His sons shall be all-broken with neediness; and his hands shall yield to him his sorrow. (His sons shall make recompense to the poor; and with their hands they shall give back their goods to them.)

11 His bones shall be [full-]filled with the vices of his young waxing age; and they shall sleep with him in (the) dust.

Job 20:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

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.